Falling
by Karka
Summary: warning! Deathly Hallows spoilers! Hermione gets beaten up by ron and leaves him. Where will life take her, and what happens when the unexpected occurs?
1. Chapter 1

**Falling**

**Disclaimer: I don't know of any Harry Potter ownership in my name. If there is some somewhere, please let me know! (Not counting ownership of copies of the books!) Also don't own the song that I want to put somewhere in here by Karen Louise. Amazing singer, checker her out if you don't know her. Oh, the song I'm using is called "Falling". Not sure where this is going yet, will let you know when I have worked out which chapter. **

**Warning! Deathly Hallows spoilers!!! Don't read this if you haven't finished that one yet!**

**Will eventually be SBHG. How we get there will of course be explained as we go along.**

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Chapter 1.

"Ron, No! I said, NO!"

The sound of Hermione's shouts ripped through the house again, waking her two children.

Rose sat up as her bedroom door opened, revealing an upset looking Hugo.

"You ok?" she whispered, turning on the bedside light as he shut the door.

"No," came his shaky reply as he began to cry. He ran over into his sister's arms, crying into her shoulder.

"I'M FED UP WITH HAVING THIS CONVERSATION WITH YOU! MY ANSWER IS STILL NO! IT WILL ALWAYS BE - "

A pained cry, followed by a loud thud made Rose and Hugo look up. They paled as the thudding and cries of pain continued.

"You – stupid – BITCH!" Ron was yelling. " You – never – show – me - any – respect!" He punctuated every word with a kick or a punch, "You – aren't – being – a proper – wife!"

Rose had had enough. "Hugo, come on, I'm getting Harry." She pulled him from the room, down the stairs to the kitchen, their mother's cries and their father hitting her becoming louder as hey ran past the closed living room door.

She ran to the fireplace, grabbing a handful of floo-powder from its pot on the mantle piece. She threw it in, pulling her brother into the floo with her as the flames tuned green.

"Harry Potter, Godric's Hollow!" she said clearly, holding her brother tightly.

They stepped out of the fireplace into Harry's kitchen to find Harry, Ginny and Ted sitting around the kitchen table, looking at them in shock.

"What's happened?" Harry asked, looking from the livid look on Rose's face to the tears running down a shaking Hugo's cheeks.

"Mum and Dad are fighting again." Hugo answered, "He's hurting her, he finished his voice trembling.

"What do you mean hurting her?" Harry asked, his voice urgent.

"He's beating her." Rose spat, holding her brother close as he cried harder.

There was a mad scraping of chairs as three wands were drawn and the adults stood up, moving past Rose and Hugo to the fire place.

"Stay here. We'll sort it." Harry reassured them before following his wife and Godson, who had already disappeared through the floo.

Footsteps on the stairs announced the arrival of Harry and Ginny's three children.

"Oh my God! What's happened?" Lily asked.

"Dad's hitting mum," Hugo whispered.

The other three looked at each other in pure horror. They ran forward, wrapping their arms around the Weasley children.

The flames turned green again and Harry emerged carrying a limp Hermione. Ted arrived moments later, moving quickly over to help Harry move her to the sofa.

"Mum!" Hugo cried, breaking free of the group and running over to her. She was battered and bruised. Her lip was bleeding and her arm was broken, twisted into a funny position.

"Where's mum?" Lily asked.

"Giving her brother an earful that her mother would be proud of." Ted muttered.

"Yes well, Molly is going to murder him when she hears about this." Harry said, his voice dark.

"Is mum going to be ok?" Rose asked.

"She'll be fine. I'll look after her." Harry wrapped his arms around her, as she finally succumbed to tears.

Hermione groaned in pain. " Where are the kids?" she asked, her voice hoarse from crying.

"We're here mum. It's ok." Hugo answered, brushing a lock of brown hair of his mother's face.

Knowing they were both safe, Hermione slipped out of consciousness, allowing darkness to claim her again.

"Right kids. I want all five of you to go up to bed alright?" The two Weasleys opened their mouths in protest. "Your mum would say the same. It's eleven o'clock at night. I promise that if anything happens I'll wake you up. I'll look after her. I promise," he said, gently, but firmly.

They nodded, looking at their mum.

"Ted, can you organise that for me? Stick Rose in with Lily and Hugo with Albus." Harry said. Ted nodded and led the five children up stairs, pausing to let Hermione's children give her a gentle kiss on the cheek each.

Harry turned his attention to Hermione drawing his wand. He flicked it, muttering a spell that would reveal hidden wounds and show the severity of each. Several points glowed green over small cuts and all the bruises, a few blue to indicate broken bones. There was one that really worried hi however, and that was the red one over her chest that said she was bleeding badly. Her shirt was still white in the place in question, so it had to be internal. It started flashing, meaning it was going to become fatal very soon.

Harry looked at her face and realised blood was dripping out of her mouth.

"Shit." He hissed.

"What's wrong?" asked Ted, having just come back down the stairs.

"She's got a broken rib. It's punctured her left lung and she's loosing a lot of blood. Not to mention drowning in it." He said, picking her up. "Stay with the kids, and tell Ginny where I have gone when she gets back. I'm taking her to St. Mungo's." He said flicking his wand awquadly to floo powder to go into the fire.

"What do I tell the kids?"

"That's all they need to know, that she's going to hospital and that I'll send word when I know what's happening. Don't let them come to the hospital."

Ted nodded, and Harry stepped into the green flames. "St. Mungo's"

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When Hermione woke she kept her eyes shut. Muffled voices could be heard, but they were shouting.

"SHE'S MY WIFE!" Ron stormed.

"AND YOU WILL BE BLOODY LUCKY IF YOU EVER GET TO SEE HER AGAIN!" came Ginny's retort.

"Let me through Ginny," Ron said, his voice low and dangerous. "Don't make me hex you."

"You aren't getting anywhere near her Ronald. And don't even think about hexing me. You know I've always been better at duelling than you." She too had a low tone, just as dangerous as her brother's.

A series of loud bangs and shouts followed this and other angry voices soon joined the fray.

"Mr Weasley, I am going to have to ask you to leave!"

"Let me see my wife."

"Ron, just go home." Harry's voice sounded. Hermione opened her eyes and realised why the voices were slightly muffled. She was in a hospital bed, and they were outside her door.

"Harry, just let me in."

"You don't have the right to be _here_ never mind in there. You hurt her, and you hurt your kids - " Harry was cut off.

"I NEVER HURT THEM!"

"Mentally Ron. They stumbled out of our fireplace on Thursday night white as sheets. Rose and Hugo have both been up at all hours of the night crying their eyes out cause they think their mum is going to die because of when you did! They haven't seen her in almost a week Ron. She's been out cold since she passed out on my sofa!" Ginny screamed. "Ted was up with them all night last night! Rose looks like death, she hasn't slept all week. Hugo is sleeping out of pure exhaustion. Don't you dare tell me they aren't hurt by your actions Ronald Weasley. Get out. You're not going to get in. give up." Her voice had a flat, _don't bother trying_ tone to it.

"Fine. I'm going home."

The ward door closed with a slam and Ginny could be heard muttering a string of profanities that would make a nun blush. The door opened and Harry entered, smiling as he realised she was awake.

"Hey, how you feeling," he asked, sitting down beside her.

She paused for a moment, thinking about her answer.

"Everything aches. Even breathing hurts. My so-called idiot of a husband had the ordacity to even think about coming near me after he decided that beating me to the ground was acceptable, and I really want to see my children."

Harry smiled. "Fair enough. I think the Healers will want to check you over now that you are awake."

She grimaced. "Great. I get to be prodded and poked."


	2. Chapter 2

Hello darlings. Thank you all for the reviews!

Nynaeve80: I don't like Ron either! And I can't see him and Hermione working. He's too stupid and brash for her!

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Chapter 2:

After the Healer had been in and run some tests, Hermione was pronounced fine. They asked her to stay a few hours longer, just to make sure that she was going to remain conscious, and then she could be released later that evening.

"How have the kids been?" Hermione asked Harry, the only person that she really felt ready to see right now.

"Ted's got them at my place." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. They weren't in the hospital. They hadn't seen her in this awful place.

"Have they been alright?"

"Most of all they just want their mum home. Which is fair enough. I haven't let them come up, mainly in case Ron came up and tried to take them. They're safe at my place. They're a little tired and depressed, but they'll be fine once we get you home."

Hermione nodded. Her stomach had dropped at the thought of Ron taking the children away. "I can't believe this is happening Harry. I can't believe that I'm sat here, worrying about whether or not my kids have been taken by their own father."

"He won't try anything. Not now. That's his second yelling match with Ginny in as many hours. Both times, I would like to point out, he came off worse. She has some nasty hexes up her sleeve. Remind me never to get on the wrong side of her."

She smiled weakly. "Has Molly gotten her hands on him yet?" She coughed slightly, her voice not used to talking.

"No not yet. I don't want to be there when she does either. She came in to see you a few times. Absolutely horrified. She decided to ignore him. The disappointed act from her always worked better than her yelling at him anyway." Harry shrugged. "She might go and yell at him today though. Ginny has just gone to owl her and tell her that Ron has been up. She told us to tell her if "that scoundrel" so much as showed his nose."

He smiled. "The whole family is furious with him. All of the brothers living in the country have punched him. Charlie sent him a very vicious Howler that tried to bite his ear. Ginny has hexed him more than once. His parents aren't speaking to him and Fleur. Oh that was priceless."

Hermione's curiosity peaked. "What happened?"

"She slapped him repeatedly, screaming in French. Her veela blood was so close to taking over that the rest of us were debating running for cover."

Hermione smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. You've all been to such trouble to defend me and the kids."

"Don't you dare apologise!" Harry said firmly, taking her hand and using his other hand to lift her chin. "You have done absolutely nothing wrong. That git is getting nothing he doesn't deserve."

She sighed, closing her eyes. "What do I do Harry? I can't go back there, but I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Don't talk rubbish. You always have people you can turn to. Always. We are all here for you."

"But none of you have the space!"

"So stay at Grimmauld!" Harry said, "Kreacher would love the company. He talks about you all the time. Loves his 'Miss Hermione'."

Hermione thought about it, the reference to nutty little old house-elf making her smile. "Could I? I wouldn't be any trouble would it?"

"Of course not. And Ron would never go there. We can ward it against him."

"I think I will if that is alright." She nodded.

"Good. Me any Ginny will go and yours and the kids' stuff once we have you home, and then you can go over later this evening if you want." Harry looked at her expression, it was sombre.

"Thank you." She said quietly, wanting it all to be over. This was awful. She was talking about moving out of her family home. Not only that but she was making arrangements for her friends to collect her things, so that she didn't have to go near Ron.

Harry called to his house-elf. "Kreacher."

He appeared with a crack. "Yes Maser?"

"Can you go to Grimmauld place and make sure the house if fit for guests. Hermione and her children are going to stay there for a time."

The elf jumped for joy. "Yes Master. Kreacher would be glad to serve. Will master and Miss Hermione be wanting dinner tonight?"

"Er, yes please. Can you do dinner for nine people, and then something for you?"

"Yes Master. Is there anything else that you will be wanting?" the elf asked, eager to please.

"No thanks Kreacher. That will be all."

The elf vanished to do as Harry had asked him, leaving Hermione to her thoughts again, Harry her silent companion, to be there if she needed him, but not saying anything when she needed the quiet.

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"Well, I see no reason why you need to stay any longer. You are perfectly fine." The Healer said, after half an hours prodding and poking.

He left the room.

"Finally. Can you get Ginny for me?" Hermione asked, wanting the bag of clothes she knew the other witch carried.

"Sure thing." Harry smiled and got up, walking to the door. Ginny came in moments later with a bag of clothes.

"Hey hunny. How you feeling?" She asked, walking over and hugging her.

"I'm much better now. Thanks." She hugged the red head back; half happy, half sad that Ginny had chosen her over Ron. She didn't want the family divided, but she was glad Ginny was still her friend.

She changed her clothes, dressing in clothes that belonged to Ginny, but fit Hermione well, just until she could get some of her own.

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked.

"I'm leaving Ron. Me and the kids are going to go and stay at Grimmauld for a while." Hermione replied, tying her shoelaces.

"Bet Kreacher will be thrilled."

"He was. Practically skipped when Harry told him." She pulled a light jumper over her head, and straightened herself out. "Shall we go then?"

The pair exited the small wardroom to find Harry, George, Bill, Fleur and Charlie waiting outside for her.

" 'Ermione! You are OK!" Fleur gasped, leaping to her feet and wrapping the younger witch in an almost crushing hug. "Ve haf been zo vorried!" (Apologies if this isn't how she speaks!) She said, her accent strong.

Hermione smiled; glad to see all of the people around her.

"Come on then. Kreacher will need a little while I should have thought, so what do you say to coming over to our place and seeing the kids for a bit?" Harry said. She nodded.

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Hermione stepped out of the fire, only to be engulfed by her two children.

"Mum!" Hugo shouted.

"You're ok!" Rose began to cry, tears of relief flowing down her face.

"I'm fine." Hermione whispered, hugging them tightly. "Everything is going to be alright." She kissed the tops of their heads gently.

The flames in the fireplace glowed green again, and Harry stepped, followed quickly by Ginny and the others.

This seemed to be the cue for a large group hug, with Hermione in the middle, as her Godchildren joined the fray. Ted looked like he was going to come over, but had paused, unsure. She smiled, motioning with her head for him to come over.

He had always been close to her while he was growing up, often staying with her and Ron when Harry and Ginny had needed a baby sitter. HE grinned, and almost ran to over, joining the hug.

"Ok guys. I think you are going to suffocate her." Harry chuckled when the other adults had all removed and hung up coats, only to find that the huddle was still in perfect form.

The children all released her, some crying softly, but all happy and smiling.

"When are we going home?" Rose asked quietly.

"What? I don't want to go back there!" Hugo cried, horror lining his small face.

"Hey shh. It's ok. We're not going back. We're going somewhere else. It's a big old house, and it's sometimes a bit scary, but it's safe alright." Hermione said, stroking his hair.

"And Dad won't go there?" Hugo said quietly, his voice trembling.

"Not if he knows what's good for him." Ginny said coolly. "Anyway. Grandma Weasley hasn't gotten her hands on him yet."

All five children paled, almost feeling sorry for Ron. They knew Molly's temper. She may not be as young as she used to be, but she was still as terrifying as ever when angry.

The flames glowed green once again and Molly's echoing shout came through. She had obviously opened the floo link before she had quite finished shouting.

"AND DON'T YOU DARE EVEN THINK ABOUT FOLLOWING ME RONALD. YOY HAVE DONE QUITE ENOUGH DAMAGE. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME!"

Mrs Weasley stepped from Harry's fire, wheeling around as she did so, as if daring her youngest son to disobey her. When the flames remained their natural colour, she turned away from it, to the rest of the room.

"How is he?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Not nearly as ashamed as he should be, putting you three through this. He holds that you are to blame Hermione. I hexed him just for that. He kept shouting about wanting the children back, but I told him that he could get that idea out of his head straight away." She huffed, removing her coat.

"Did you tell him that we are going over to get Hermione and the kid's stuff?" Harry asked.

"Oh, no sorry. I was so angry with him. I clean forgot." She said, remembering.

"Don't worry about it Molly." He stood. "Is there anything in particular that you want from the house?" He asked Hermione, who still had her arms around Hugo.

"All the kids' stuff. My old Hogwarts things. Clothes, my books, the rest of my belongings. She thought about it. "My wand! It got thrown under the bed. Can you fetch it for me?"

Harry nodded. "Sure thing. Everything. Wand under the bed. Got it. Come on Gin. See you lot in a minute." He walked over to the fireplace, throwing a handful of floo powder in. "Sandlodge."

Ginny followed, and the rest of them waited. Ten minutes passed and Harry reappeared, followed by three trunks, which he levitated into a corner. Ginny appeared moments later with a further three trunks, all three of them Hogwarts trunks, two new, and one from the days of the Golden Trio.

"Here you go." She said, levitating them into the corner.

"Thanks." Hermione said, a crack evident in her voice.

That was it. It was final. Her things sat in a pile in the corner of Harry's living room. Harry and Ginny had fetched them, not her. It was over. She began to cry, fleeing the room and running through the kitchen and into the back garden, not stopping until she reached the flowerbeds at the far end.

She sobbed quietly, wrapping her arms around her slim frame. She should feel relief that he couldn't hurt them anymore. She would never go back. It was asking too much.

They had argued every point, however small and petty over the last year. Ron had changed, and it hadn't been for the better. This had been the first time her had laid a hand on her. And it would also be the last.

"Hermione?" Harry's voice sounded behind her. She turned into his arms, crying into his chest.

"I never thought it would come to this." She whispered, clutching his robes.

"Me neither," Harry murmured, hugging her.

"I thought that we were set for life, me and Ron. I never thought that this would happen. I…I feel so…alone."

"I know." Harry knew that feeling of not having anyone, even when surrounded by people. It was the feeling that he had felt his whole life, right up until the end of Voldemort's reign of terror.

He cuddled her close, not knowing what to say. Women and their feelings were still very much a mystery to him.

"It's not even like he was drunk or anything. He was just being unreasonable. He's been harping on about how I should be a proper wife, quit my job and keep the house like Molly did. We'd be broke if we did that. Ron's job wouldn't cover the four of us, and I happen to like work. Can you see me sitting at home and playing house for him?"

Harry shook his head. There was no way that that image suited Hermione.

"And now, I'm living in your house with two children, neither or which want to go any where near their father. My stuff is packed up in the corner of your living room. You had to go and get it. He is estranged from his family and… and…" she pulled away from Harry, pacing.

"And I'm looking at a forked path. At the end of one there is a brick wall with "Divorce" written on it, and the other is a picture of me being the wife that he wants me to be." She looked up at Harry, her eyes sad and confused. "Is this it? Is this what my life is down to? Break up my marriage and family, or let him rule my life?"

She sat down on the bench a few feet from where they had been standing. Harry sat beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders. "You know that we are all behind you, what ever you chose to do, and we will always be there to help you. Everyone in that house, along with everyone who would be there if they could loves you, and not a single one of them would want to see you become any less than what you are," he said, pulling her close.

She stood, and he followed her. She turned and hugged him, kissing him on the cheek. "It's good to know that I have such a great family around me. Family I can come to anytime." She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and smiled up at him sadly. "I love him, but I don't love him enough to let him control everything about me and my children's lives."

"So long as you are happy and think that you are making the right decision." Harry said, walking a little way toward the house. "You coming in?"

"There's one more thing I need to do first. Can you stay with me?"

"Sure."

"Do you have my wand?"

"Yes." He handed it to her, and she took it, twirling it in her fingers, thinking. She pulled off her wedding and engagement rings and whispered "Portus." She placed them on the ground and walked over to where Harry stood.

She turned and they watched as the rings glowed blue before vanishing.

"Well if that doesn't give him the message then nothing will." She said, turning away.

Harry walked with her back into the house. When she entered the house she seemed lighter. She smiled to her children and while he knew some of it was a façade to keep up appearances, he thought she looked a little brighter, like a weight had been lifted from her when she sent back the rings.


	3. Chapter 3

Read and review darlings! Please don't flame me! If you don't like it, don't read it!

This may be my only update for about a week, I have to baby sit my cousins, and I don't know if I will have computer access at my aunts. We shall have to see.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. I have 21p to my name. I found it this morning.

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Chapter 3:

"Ok kids. When we get into the house, something is going to happen. It's only a spell and it won't hurt you. It's a protective spell that we have been trying to get rid of for ages and ages." Harry said as they stood on the steps of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. "Just ignore it." He added.

The five children nodded and Harry unlocked the door. The group stepped in and shut the door.

"Severus Snape?" Mad-eye Moody's voice echoed through the hall and dust figure of Albus Dumbledore appeared, approaching them steadily.

"We didn't kill you Albus." Harry said clearly, and the figure crumpled.

"We really need to get rid of that. Snape has been dead for twenty years." Ginny said.

"I'll look through the library here latter." Hermione whispered, lowering the six hovering trunks quietly into a corner at the bottom of the stairs.

"Why is it so dark in here?" Lily asked.

"Who lives here?" James whispered?

"Why is everyone whispering?" Rose asked, her voice also low.

"It's dark because Kreacher is the only one who lives here and he likes the dark." Harry answered, keeping his voice down. He motioned them into the kitchen and shut the door. "Kreacher!" he called having done this.

The elf appeared with a crack. "Yes Master?" he asked happily.

"I wanted o introduce you to some people. You know Hermione. These are her two children Hugo and Rose." He said point each child out in turn. "You are to assist them if they need anything during their stay here."

"Yes master Harry. Kreacher is glad to help Miss Hermione and her children." Kreacher said bowing low to them.

"Thank you. How long will dinner be?" He asked the elf.

"Ten minutes sir. Is you wanting it in the dining room or in the kitchen?" he asked politely.

"Erm. Is the dining room usable?"

"Yes sir. Kreacher is always keeping Master's house clean for Master." Came the reply.

"Good, thank you. Dining room it is then. That will be all." Harry said, smiling down at the house-elf, who bowed and disappeared with a loud crack.

"Mum, was that a house-elf?" Rose asked.

"Yes dear. You must be nice to him, and to all house elves. And that's not just Rose, that's all of you. Do you understand?" Hermione replied sternly.

"Yes." Chorused the children.

"Shall I show you guys where you are sleeping?" Harry asked.

The three guests nodded. Harry looked over their heads to the rest of the group. "Just go and sit in the living room, we'll be down in a bit."

They trooped off through a near by door and Harry led the three Weasleys up the stairs. When they reached the curtains covering Mrs. Black's portrait he paused, pointing to it and then placing a finger to his lips.

On reaching the first floor, he whispered to the two children. "Do you want to share, or would next door to each other be ok?"

They looked at each other. "Next door please," they whispered.

"Ok, follow me." HE led them into a large room. "This used to be my old room." He said, flicking his wand. One of the two beds vanished. He deliberately neglected to mention that their father used to stay here too. "Rose, do you want this one?"

She nodded and Harry smiled. "I'll bring your stuff up later."

He led them through to the next room and repeated the vanishing of one of the beds. "There you go Hugo."

"Who stayed here?" he asked.

"Bill when he wanted to."

Higo smiled. He like Bill.

He showed the two where their mother would be sleeping, in case they ever needed her. It was the room she had once shared with Ginny. Having done this, he turned to them. "You are more than welcome to explore this house, and all of the rooms are open to you, unless of course the doors are locked. They are rooms that belonged to people who are no longer with us. It would be wrong to pry into them or the secrets they may hold. Please don't force those doors." Harry's face shows him how serious he was.

They nodded and Harry changed the subject. "Ok, Hermione you know the drill on this bit. We haven't managed to get the portrait of Mrs. Black down off the wall yet. You must be as silent as mice in the hallways or you will get a very very nasty shock and hear some truly disgusting words." He said, opening the door and pointing to the curtains on the floor below.

"You have to be very quiet passed there." He whispered, "That's where the portrait is."

He closed the door. "Any questions?"

"Who is Mrs. Black?" Hugo enquired, straining his memory. He'd heard the surname before, but couldn't remember where.

"You remember Harry showed you that photograph of his parents at their wedding? On the wall in the dining room." Hermione said to her son.

"Yes."

"There was a man in the photograph with them, with jaw length black hair. He looked like a bit of a charmer," she continued.

They nodded.

"His name was Sirius wasn't it?" Rose said quietly.

"Yes, Sirius Black. He was Harry's Godfather. He left him the house. The portrait is of Sirius' mother, who owned the house before him."

The children continued to look confused. "If the portrait is so horrible, why don't you get rid of it?" Hugo asked.

"There is a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back." Harry glowered. "Means just that. It's never going to come off the wall. Much like some other things I wouldn't lament being rid of." He thought of the tapestry, and the house-elf heads.

At that moment, Kreacher appeared with a crack. "Dinner is being ready now Master."

"Thank you Kreacher." Harry answered, the elf vanishing again. "Shall we go eat?"

The other three nodded and followed Harry back down the stairs, one of which creaked. Right beside the portrait of Mrs. Black.

Harry and Hermione winced.

"MUD-BLOODS! BLOOD TRAITORS! BESMIRCHERS OF MY HOUSE! BEGONE! VERMIN! FOUL, TREACHEROUS WRETCHES! HALF-BREEDS!"

Loud, violent screams were issuing from the portrait, freezing the now terrified children to the spot. The curtains had flown open, revealing a hideous woman, who was quite plainly off her head.

"Shut up you foul old hag!" Harry yelled, grabbing one of the curtains.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! WERE-WOLVES! HALF-BREEDS! MUD-BLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS! ALL OF YOU OUT! AND AS FOR YOU SIRIUS BLACK! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE! YOU CAN CLEAR OFF AS WELL, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING PILE OF -"

"THEY'RE DEAD!" Harry yelled, cutting her off. "Sirius, Remus, Tonks! All dead! They have been that way for twenty years! You are dead! This, this is my house, you stupid wench! If there were any way of me doing it, you would not be here at all. NOW FOR GOD'S SAKE SHUT UP!" He waved his wand at the curtains with a flourish, making them close abruptly.

Harry was panting with fury, and Hermione was horrified. It was a long time since she had seen Harry that angry. The last time he had reacted that badly to something would have been during Voldemort's life.

The children unfroze and scarpered down the stairs in fright. Harry took several deep, calming breaths.

"Sorry." He whispered. "I don't like it when people disrespect the dead, particularly those who gave their lives to save others." He was shaking now, his voice cracking as he was forced to remember what had happened to his friends and family.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, and then pulled him into a hug. "It's ok. I would have been the same. Come on, let's go to dinner."

The two walked down the stairs to the dining room, finding a thoroughly miserable Kreacher standing at the door.

"Master is not wanting Mistress' portrait anymore." He sniffed.

"No I don't."

"Master is wanting Kreacher to remove it? Kreacher… Kreacher could if master wanted."

"If you could I would appreciate it. Could also remove the tapestry in the drawing room as well?"

This request made Kreacher nod miserably. He couldn't even bring himself to answer.

Harry softened. "I'll tell you what Kreacher. You can keep them in your cupboard if you like. I know they mean a lot to you."

Kreacher smiled. "Thank you very much Master!" he squeaked, running over and hugging Harry around the knees.

Harry laughed at the elf's enthusiasm. "Come on, let's go eat before dinner gets cold."

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Once every one had gone back to their respective houses, and the children put to bed, Kreacher showed Hermione the Black Library.

It was huge, bigger even than the one at Hogwarts. Books of every shape and size lined the walls. She flicked her wand, summoning all of the books that would require her curse breaking skills before she could read them. She thanked Kreacher, who ran off to remove Mrs. Black from the wall.

Hermione continued to look around the dark library. It appeared from the titles and blood stains adorning some of the covers that it was Dark as well as not having very much light.

She walked to the nearest shelf ad picked up a book at random. It was old, heavy and written in runes. This would test her memory. Would she be able to read it?

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Several hours later found Hermione lying asleep in front of the library fire, the large book slipping slowly but surely from her grip. Kreacher came in through the door and shook her gently.

"Miss. Miss. You must wake up now. Kreacher was told by Master that he must make you go to bed Miss."

Hermione opened her eyes and smiled. "Thank you Kreacher. What time is it?"

"Half-one in the morning Miss." Kreacher seemed reluctant to leave her, in case she went back to sleep.

She sighed and sat up, yawning. She marked her place in the book and placed it on the table. She stood, bidding Kreacher goodnight and walking down the stairs to her second floor bedroom. She closed the door with a click and collapsed onto her bed, fully clothed, asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

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That's it my darlings until next time. Keep the reviews coming, I love to here what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello!

This is an incredibly short chapter, but I didn't want to put the next bit in with it, cause that is very significant and needs to be in a chapter on its own.

As soon as I have posted this I will start on the next bit! I promise.

There was one reviewer who asked when Sirius was coming in, and the answer is that you will find out when I get to him. It will be soon!

There was another (apologies for the lack of names, my internet is being annoying and keeps crashing on that page) who asked when this was set. It is set the year Hugo comes to Hogwarts, one year after the epilogue of the Deathly Hallows. Does that make it a bit clearer?

Anyway, don't own Harry Potter, we all know that I wish I did, etc. etc.

Sorry for the shortness!

Read, review and enjoy!

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Chapter 4:

September the first came with a flurry, and on arrival at the platform, a fistfight between Ron and Harry. Ron had been thick enough to try and talk to Hermione and the kids, the latter having run off onto the train to hide.

"Harry, just let me talk to her."

"No, Ron. She doesn't want to see you. Hence her ignoring you."

Ron tried to side step him, but Harry moved with him. "Go home Ron. Don't make a scene." Harry was trying to be as civil as possible, but Ron had inherited his mother's temper, and unleashed it on Harry.

Harry took a fist to the eye, and delivered one to Ron's nose in return. Ron roared with anger, launching himself at Harry, who, not having time to draw his wand, simply defended his position with whatever was necessary.

It ended up being Hermione and Draco Malfoy who dragged the two apart.

"Talk about not making a scene," Hermione spat at Ron, releasing her grip on Harry, looking him over for any big injuries and ignoring the red head trying to get past Malfoy.

"What the hell is going on here?" Draco asked, still not releasing Ron.

"That bastard won't let me see my wife." Ron snapped, trying and failing to yank his arm free of Draco's firm grip.

Hermione whirled round, her eyes blazing with hate and fury. "Did you ever consider, even for a moment Ronald that maybe I didn't want to talk to you? Did you forget that I moved out of our house, taking the kids with me? Did you forget that Harry and Ginny were the ones to pick up all the kids' things, and mine? Not me! Did you forget that when I was in hospital, you were refused entry, because I didn't want to see you, and the Healers deemed it inappropriate given the reason for my hospitalisation? Have you missed the fact that I sent my rings back to you, and that I haven't once contacted you, or replied to any correspondence you may or may not have sent? You haven't been allowed near my office at work and every time you have tried you have been turned away. Has all of this passed you by? Are you so blind that you can't see that I don't want you anywhere near me after what you did?" Hermione stormed, her expression cold and angry.

Draco had never seen her this angry before, not even with Voldemort or the Death Eaters. Not even with him, and there had been some occasions where she had wanted to kill him. What in the name of Merlin had the idiot done to deserve this tirade? He figured that he must deserve it if Potter was in on it too.

"I filed for a divorce last week –" Ron cut her off.

"You can't get a divorce without my permission!" he said triumphantly.

"I think you will find that in these circumstances, oh yes I can," she said, her voice low. "The papers will be sent to you next week. I have custody of the kids. You can keep the house, so long as you buy me out, and I'm taking my money out of the account and putting it in my private account. That's all there is to it. Now go, you've done enough. Don't make things worse for yourself." Her voice was flat, final.

"I want to see my kids." Ron said, his voice shaking.

"Well they don't want to see you. They are terrified of you and of what you did to me. I suggest you go home Ron. You aren't welcome here. Goodbye Ron." She turned away from him.

"Hermione, I love you." Ron whispered.

She stopped, but didn't turn. Her voice when she spoke was harsh, cold as ice, showing the finality of their relationship. "You should have thought about that before you beat me up." She carried on walking, around the corner and out of sight.

Ron looked stunned, and Draco dropped his hold on the other man's arm in pure disgust. He may have done a lot of bad things in his time, but beating up his wife was not one of them. He was appalled, and suddenly regretted breaking up the fight.

Harry walked away, straightening his shirt as Ginny ran over to make sure he was all right. Ron turned away, giving up; his shoulders slumped as he walked, defeated, back through the barrier.

Draco now turned his attention to the brunette who was standing alone around the corner. He followed her, finding her leaning against a stone pillar, on the side furthest from the train, so less people could see the soft tears flowing steadily down her face. He went to her, stopping a few feet from her.

"Come to gloat have you?" she said coldly, not even looking up from the floor.

"No. I came to make sure you were alright." He leant against the pillar. She looked at him suspiciously. "I know we never got on as students, but… can we be adults and put that behind us? We finished up on the same side…" He offered her a hand.

She looked at him, a slight look of surprise on her face. "Who are you and what have you done with Draco Malfoy?"

"I assure you that I am the same person, just with different ideals. I've grown up. I'm not the selfish little brat I was then." Draco looked her straight in the eye, knowing she was good at seeing the truth in a persons eyes. It was what made her such a good Auror. No one could lie to her.

She gave a half-smile, shaking his offered hand. "Thank you. It's good to know that we managed to get through that stubborn head of yours."

He smiled, a true smile, not his trademark smirk. "I think it was the fact that no matter what I had done to you, all three of you went out of your way to save my life. Listen. Ignore Weasley; don't let him get to you. Keep your chin up and, strange though it may seem, if you ever need to talk to someone who is impartial, I am at the other end of a floo line." He put a hand on her shoulder. "I have to go and make sure Scorpius has managed to get himself onto the train, but I'll see you around." He walked away, waving as he did so.

Hermione watched him, in a weird state of half shock. She walked over to the train where Ginny was reassuring her niece and nephew that their father had left.

"There is something very very screwed up going on with the world." She muttered to Harry, "Ron and Malfoy have switched brains. Ron is a twat and Malfoy is being sweet and caring."

"There is something very wrong with that image of Draco Malfoy." Harry replied, thinking about it.

"He smiled at me, and I mean actually smiled. Not smirk, smiled. He came over to me, smiled and made sure I was Ok." Hermione was rambling, she could hear it, but couldn't do anything about it.

"I was unaware that he knew how to do such things." Ginny mused.

"Apparently, we were all wrong." Harry replied, watching the blond in question as he helped his uncannily similar son onto the train. He looked happy. Genuinely happy.

"Maybe the war has changed him, you never know." He shrugged. "Come on, let's go and see the kids off."

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I'm sorry it's taken me so long to upload this. I have to use my aunt's computer, because mine is sadly broken. No worries though! It has been taken away to be fixed, though what that entails I have no idea! Will post as much as I can. It depends on how long it takes my wonderful friend to beta read I for me. She has bullied me into it, because she has been picking up all of my little errors. Never mind. Will update as soon as I can.


	5. Chapter 5

Ok people, this is a small chapter like the last one. I apologise for this. Will carry on typing and give you chapter six as soon as I can.

Read and review my darlings.

Still don't own Sirius, am very depressed about this fact.

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Chapter 5.

When she arrived back at Grimmauld Place, Hermione went straight to the library, trying not to think about the awfulness of her morning, and how lonely she felt at that particular moment. She planned to cure her misery by doing what she did best, by loosing herself in an interesting book.

She wandered through the shelves, looking for an interesting title, when a plain, yet handsome looking, black leather bound book caught her eye. It had no title, yet it looked appealing enough to warrant a look in. She did a quick curse check, and finding none opened it.

It became quickly apparent that this was a diary, or a log of some kind, but there were no dates on the entries. It was not in a hand that she recognised, nor in a familiar style of wording or writing, and the person never signed their name.

/I think I am going to go nuts. That horrid cow is trying to kill me, or at the very least, make me want to kill myself! "Do this, Do that! You are such a disappointment! Why can't you be more like your brother?"

Who in their right mind would want to be anything like that slimy little toad? Honestly! I can't wait to get back to Hogwarts. Then I can go and plan pranks in my nice warm, cosy common room, and he can rot in his vile little stinking dungeon hovel. I really do hope he rots there. /

Who on earth could that be? It didn't sound like anyone she knew. She flicked on a few entries. Apparently this person did not write in it often, because the next entry was written by a much more skilled hand.

/I've had enough of this. This is more than likely going to be the last entry I ever make to this journal. Actually, scratch that, it will most definitely be my last entry, there is no probably about it. This book can never leave the library and I am leaving this house for good. I can't stand this place any more. This house contains everything that I despise. I'm going to go and live with James and his parents. They won't mind, they have already said I am welcome any time. They know what it's like here. They know I can't stay in this hell hole. I don't care what my "family" say. They won't care, given that I have been such an awful disappointment to them. They have my brother. Now they can be the horrid snobby, pure-bred family they have always wanted to be, because I won't be here to stop them.

Goodbye my faithful little friend, you have dutifully kept me sane during my hell here.

Thank you. /

Hermione stopped reading. It was Sirius, it had to be. He had gone to live with James one summer, she remembered him telling Harry about it. He'd gotten fed up with his mother and this house, so he had packed his bags and walked out.

There was more in the little book. She turned the page, finding a more mature, more familiar hand. Definitely Sirius.

/Hello again old friend. Never thought that I'd see you again. Never thought I'd be stuck here again, but there you go. That's what happens when you spend 12 years in Azkaban for fifteen murders that were nothing to do with you, break out of prison and spend two years on the run before Dumbledore decides that that option isn't safe any more and figuratively speaking locks you in the house. I say figuratively because I can do what ever I like, so long as it doesn't involve me setting foot outside. Not even as Snuffles, because the Rat knows me and will have told his master and all his little Death Eater friends that the big Grim like dog is in fact the falsely convicted Sirius Black. Damned rat. This is all his fault. /

The next entry was about Molly treating Harry like a child, and the one after that was a rant about how every time Dung came into the house he had to listen to his damned mother's portrait scream because he was to drunk to remember that he wasn't meant to use the door bell. The next one was about "that fucking slimy bastard" who remained unnamed, but Hermione figured to be Snape.

This pattern of Sirius' seemly daily ranting continued on until about three quarters of the way through the book. Instead of a rant, there was one particular entry that seemed to be more personal.

/This is going to be the weirdest thing I will ever have written down on paper. I have just made a very startling discovery. I have fallen in love. What's worse is that I didn't even realise I was doing it. She's beautiful, though if I told her so, she would do one or possibly all of three things. One, she could laugh at me, two she could modestly refuse the compliment (Definitely the lesser of the three evils) or three, call me a dirty old pervert. She wouldn't be wrong mind you. I am twenty years older than she is. Not that I care when I can't keep my eyes off her with her gorgeous brown eyes, beautiful smile and… there I go, she's in my head again. She has that mischievous glint in her eye, the one that is only ever seen on those few occasions where she becomes wild and breaks the rules. She loves to read, and if she ever managed to find this, she would know immediately that I was talking about her, and for that matter who I was. She would kill me. Harry would kill me. Molly? I shudder to think of what she would say if she ever found out; let alone what she would do! Oh well. I'm going to go and look gloomy, and perhaps see if I can jig the seating arrangements for dinner tonight and stick some mistletoe over her chair. There's an idea and a half. Yes I think I will do that. /

Hermione dropped the book. Sirius had been in love with her? He'd called her beautiful? She thought back to her Christmas in her fifth year. There had been mistletoe over her chair, but Sirius had clearly not been able to jig the seating because she had been between Ron and Harry, both of whom had noticed the mistletoe and kissed her at some point in the evening. Sirius had been at the other end of the table.

\O my God! \ She had been on the verge of giving the diary to Harry, but there was no way that she was going to allow him to see that. She shouldn't have even been looking at it. She should have put it down the moment she knew what it was. She ran over to a random shelf, placing it on the highest shelf, behind a load of other books, where no one she knew would ever find it again.

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The next two months were lonely for Hermione. She went to work, hiding herself away from the world behind stacks of notes and books. She was undisturbed, as always, her lonely research continuing in its monotonous pattern. When she returned home she was still alone, with no one but the old house elf for company.

The children wrote to her occasionally, and she enjoyed writing back to them, but once she had done that, there was little else for her to do.

She spent much of her time in the library, sometimes having brought her work home with her, other times she just wanted to read whatever book took her fancy, so long as she did not have to venture towards that high shelf where Sirius' journal rested.

It called out to her. She wanted to read what he had written about her again. She knew there was more writing in there too, and wanted to read that as well, but felt that she had already pried too much into the dead man's life, and while she was flattered that he had liked her, knew that no such thing could ever come of it, no matter what little school girl crushes her and Ginny had whispered about in the dead of night after seeing photographs of Sirius before Azkaban, and seeing what he looked like once he had cleaned up some what. He was dead, and therefore nothing could some of the knowledge that the infamous Sirius black had fallen in love with her.

There was also the issue of what Harry would think if he knew that she had read his Godfather's journal. He was very protective over those who died for him, and for his cause, particularly of Sirius, whom he had lost without ever getting the chance to truly know him.

So she resisted the temptation. It wasn't fair to Harry and it wasn't fair to Sirius's memory. It was too private. She felt guilty already for having read so much, even though the bit she wanted to read was about her.

She carried on looking for the spell that Moody had used on the entrance hall. He had never left any details of what the spell was, nor did he tell anyone else what it was before he died. They therefore had to find out on their own, or to be more precise, given that she was the only resident, she had to find out on her own.

There had been no reason to look for it before, so it had been left alone, much like the house it protected. Now that there was someone living her again, there was a need to get rid of it. It was annoying when anyone came to see her, and when they were there it scared the kids.

She suspected it was the "Murderer's Conscious Charm" which would not allow the murderer to lie should he enter the house, as it locked onto the magical signature, and would catch the lie as soon as it left the murderers lips. Unfortunately it was only vaguely mentioned in one of the books she had searched, and was now proving elusive. So she slogged on, working her way through the library, trying to ignore the nagging feeling that came with the presence of Sirius' journal.

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There we are my lovelies. Chapter 5. Sorry that it was short again. Would start typing the next one for you, but it is almost one in the morning and I am very sleepy. Will type some more later. When I have slept some. Night all! Thanks to my friend 'Boxers of Draco' for correcting everything that me and my spell checker are missing.


	6. Chapter 6

Here you go darlings! One chapter 6 for you.

Several people have now asked where Sirius is. I'm getting there! Patience people!

Appologies for any errors that you may find. My beta reader has concussion. I know from experience that this gives the person with the injury the brain capacity of half a mashed potato, so I couldn't really expect her to try and correct stuff. She tried anyway, but wasn't convinced she had done it very well. hugs for trying I have given it a once over, but I can never see gramma errors in my own work. It just doesnt work.

Read and review.

Enjoy!

Ps: disclaimer, still don't own Harry Potter.

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Hermione was seldom visited at Grimmauld Place, mainly due to the late hour at which she returned from work. Hallowe'en was no exception. Everyone else was elsewhere, at ministry functions, a party, somewhere other than wherever Hermione happened to be.

She was alone by choice. She could have gone to the ministry ball, but she would have been alone in a sea of couples, and she really didn't think she wanted to be there some how. She had been with Ron the year before, and they would expect him to be there again. Not that many people knew about the divorce, and Hermione planned to keep it to those who needed to know, unless of course she was asked. She wouldn't lie about it.

This was her first ever Hallowe'en alone. As a child, she had had her parents and muggle friends to trick or treat with, at Hogwarts she had been with Harry and Ron. For the last twenty years she had had Ron, and more recently, the kids. This year. She was alone, unless you counted Kreacher, but even he wasn't in the house. Harry had asked him to go up to Hogwarts and help with the feast. That left Hermione alone. Completely and utterly alone.

She sat in library, her favourite haunt, still tracking down the "Murderer's Conscience" charm. She still couldn't find more than a brief mention of it. She knew that she would probably do better at work, in the much bigger, much more up to date library there, but then she would have to go through the lengthy process of explaining why she wanted it when it wasn't related to any of the case files she was looking at. Maybe she should ask Malfoy if she could look in his library.

A loud noise from downstairs followed by "Severus Snape?" in Moody's low growl made her jump. Someone was in the house. She drew her wand and ran to the landing, only to be greeted by the silhouettes of a group of people standing in the shadows by the door.

"We didn't kill you Albus."

One voice rang out, making the dust figure of Albus Dumbledore crumble to the floor. It was familiar, but Hermione couldn't quite place it.

"Who do you think is living here?" another asked. "I thought you said it would be empty."

"I thought it would be, it wasn't used for anything when we were last here was it." Said the first voice.

Hermione pointed her wand down at them. "Who are you?" she called down, getting their attention.

"Hermione is that you?" The owner of the second voice stepped forward, but it was too dark to identify her.

"Who are you?" she repeated, keeping her wand steady.

"Remus Lupin."

"Nymphradora Lupin."

"Lily Potter."

"James Potter."

"Sirius Black."

"Alastor Moody."

"Fred Weasley."

Hermione frowned as they each spoke their name. "You just gave me a list of seven dead people, who died in the wars against Voldemort." She snapped. "Lumos." She directed the spell at the group of people standing in below her.

She gasped, almost dropping her wand in shock. There, in front of her were the people who had just been named, in the flesh.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" she asked incredulously.

She kept her wand trained on them. This was impossible. How could this be happening? Was she dreaming? She pinched her leg with her free had. It hurt. She wasn't dreaming. This thought did nothing to reassure her. How could this be happening?

"Hermione. That is you isn't it?" The voice that had spoken the spell to remove the charm on the door spoke again. It was Remus.

"Yes," she answered, her voice cold.

"The first time we met was on the Hogwarts Express when you were thirteen. Harry, Neville, Ginny and Ron." Only Sirius noticed that she flinched slightly at Ron's name. "The first thing I ever said to you was "Quiet". There were Dementors on the train and the lights had gone out. One of them came into the compartment, and Harry passed out. I told the Dementor that "none of us are hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks." He paused, "Do you believe I'm me?"

She nodded. "Either that or you did your homework before you came." Her voice was shaking slightly as she spoke. This was very surreal.

Tonks stepped forwards, her bright pink hair showing up in the wand light. "My real name is Nymphradora, but I hate it. Everyone calls me by my maiden surname, Tonks. I used to entertain you and Ginny at dinner by changing the shape of my nose."

Hermione nodded again. There were very few people who would know that. Only Order members who stayed for dinner would know that.

She looked to Mad-Eye.

"The first thing I ever said to you personally was that you would make a good Auror. That you had the right mind for it. You had just told me about how that Rita Skeeter was getting her stories, by being an unregistered Animagus."

She nodded for a third time. These people were either the real thing, or they were very good fakes. That was a scary thought.

Fred decided his turn was next. "I'm co-founder of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. You threatened to write home to mum if we kept testing our stuff on the first years, or the student population in general. We initially thought you were going to give us detention." He grinned. "Those were good times."

Hermione cracked a weak smile. That left two marauders, and a marauder's wife.

Sirius stood up next. "The first thing you ever said to me was "Mr. Black – Sirius." It took me a moment to register that you were talking to me, because no one had addressed me with such good manners for twelve and a half years, if I was addressed in any way at all. It was quite a shock hearing my own name when I was being talked to, rather than about." Sirius flashed her a small smile.

Lily and James stepped forward, into the wand light. "We've never met." Lily said uncertainly. "We're – "

"Harry's parents. I know. He has photo's of you in his house." Hermione was unsure how she was meant to prove these people were who they said they were. She didn't exactly know them personally. "I'm Hermione Granger. I'm one of Harry's best friends. I was in his year at Hogwarts, and I fought with him against Voldemort."

"Granger? I thought you and Ron were a dead cert!" Fred exclaimed.

"We were. Married with two kids, Rose and Hugo, now both at Hogwarts. I thought we were going to be together forever, but thanks to his actions I was in hospital for a week. I filed for a divorce." Hermione replied, shivering slightly at the memory of her injuries.

"What did he do?" This was Sirius. Everyone had seen this shiver, but he had seen the earlier flinch too.

"He beat me up." She said shortly, not wanting to go into too much detail. It was bad enough having to go through it once without having to relive it.

"He what?" Sirius looked murderous.

"He paid for it." Her voice was hard. She didn't want this to turn into a discussion about Ron. "Now, do all of you vouch for James and Lily being who they say they are?" She changed the subject, praying it would work.

They all nodded. She smiled, looking to the couple before her. "Then I trust you." She finally lowered her wand. Everyone seemed to breath a sigh of relief. "Kreacher?" she called. The elf appeared with a crack.

"Yes, Miss?"

"We have guests. Can you make tea and sandwiches for eight and then something for yourself please?"

"Yes Miss. Where is you wanting it Miss?" he asked.

"Just in the Kitchen will be fine thank you." She smiled down at him. He vanished.

"You ask us to wrack our brains but you don't question what's wrong with him?" Fred asked.

"He's a much better house elf now. Harry made him stick with Dobby and listened to him when he talked about Regulus and Voldemort. He realised that not all wizards were bad and that Harry didn't want to hurt him. He grew to trust Harry and Harry's judgment, and figured that if Harry thought me trustworthy, then I was Ok." She shrugged. "He's more like part of Harry's family than his servant. He's quite happy to do what ever he is asked to do now."

She walked down the stairs, flicking her wand and lighting the lights. Sirius looked past her at a spot on the wall where he was sure something was missing.

"Hermione." He said, realising suddenly what it was, and that considering that the last ten minutes had not been quiet, there should be an awful amount of noise coming from that empty spot. "Where is my mother's portrait?" he asked, overjoyed that someone, who deserved a medal, had managed to get the damned thing off the wall.

She smiled at his enthusiasm. "Kreacher got it off. She now lives in his cupboard, along with the Black tapestry. Harry didn't have the heart to make Kreacher miserable by destroying them."

She walked past the group to the Kitchen. She turned at the door. "You can come with me you know." She laughed as they hurried to catch her up.

"Where is everyone?" Tonks asked, realising how Hermione seemed to be the only one here, beside the house-elf.

"The kids are all at school. Harry and Ginny are at some Ministry function Harry gets roped into every year. Not once have they ever let him get out of it. George is at the Diagon Alley Branch of the shop doing a Hallowe'en party special, while Ted does the one in Hogsmead. Molly and Arthur are at Muriel's and everyone else isn't in the country." She replied, sitting down.

"Ted's ok?"

"Of course he is. Did you think that Harry would flake out? No, he's quite the charmer. Neville told me that a large percentage of the female members of the student body were after him. Minerva says that he reminds her of another pair." She looked pointedly at Sirius and James as she said this. Both smiled at her. Sirius nodded his head in acknowledgment.

Hermione looked at four of the people sat before her. Each of them should be fifty-seven, yet none of them looked it. James, and Lily looked to be about the same age as Ted was. Not at day over twenty-one. Sirius looked a little younger than she was and Remus only a little over that. Tonks looked about twenty-five. Moody, the same as he had ever looked. Fred looked little older than James and Lily. It was surreal. Each and every one of these people was older than her. Most of them a generation before her own. Yet she only looked younger than two of them, which was a scary thought.

Kreacher chose this moment to serve sandwiches, and the group sat down to eat them.

"So, how did you get back?" Hermione asked.

"The Veil is one of the very few doorways between life and death, and on one day of the year, namely Hallowe'en, the night of the dead, the barrier across these doorways is weaker than the others. You can't get through as a human, but you can get through as an animal. Me and James of course had no problems with this, being Animagi, but none of the others possessed this useful talent, so a bit of improvisation was in order." Sirius explained.

Hermione looked confused. "How did you get through?"

"I had a wand. I fell bodily through the veil. Wand in hand, so I still had it on me. I transfigured the others into animals. Bit like Moody did to that Malfoy kid."

"That was not me! That was an impostor!" Moody said indignantly.

"Oh yeah, so it was. Anyway, the point still stands. That's how we did it." Sirius said, grabbing a sandwich from the plate in the middle of the table.

Hermione still looked confused.

"How did you know that you could get through as animals?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"Tonks watched a mouse do it." Remus answered, as Sirius was halfway through a mouthful of sandwich.

Hermione nodded, her mouth forming a silent "oh" of understanding.

"Well, I don't know about you lot, but given the truly God-awful hour it is, I am going to go to bed. You lot can take whatever rooms you can find, as the ones you might have had before are now locked, courtesy to the dead from Harry. James and Lily you can have my room, first door on the left on the second floor. The rest of you it is every man or woman to himself. The couch is mine!" She laughed, as there was a scramble of people to get out of the door.

She left the kitchen, able to hear doors slamming and profanities flying as Fred and Sirius battled it out for the last bed. She knew there weren't enough rooms with all the locked doors. Fred apparently beat Sirius by tickling him mercilessly until he was on the floor before darting into the room and slamming it in Sirius' face, leaving him to sulk as he plodded down the stairs to find a mirthful Hermione standing in the hallway by the living room door.

"You can sleep in here." She said, the smile not quite leaving her lips as she looked as his dejected expression. She stepped aside, allowing him entry. She conjured a bed for him with a flick of her wand. "There you go."

"I'll take the couch Hermione, its ok." He offered, knowing she wouldn't take him up on it, but feeling it would be impolite not to at least try.

"No, now go to bed."

"But – "

"No!" she said flatly, climbing under the quilt that she conjured from her wand.

Sirius gave up and kicked of his shoes, climbing into bed. He faced away from her, not wanting stare at her while she was still awake. He knew he wouldn't be able to resist if he was facing her. She was just the same as she had been then. Beautiful, fiery, utterly wonderful to look at and listen to. Her brown eyes held the same passion and intellect they always had. Her hair wasn't bushy anymore, instead hanging in soft loose ringlets down her back. It was waist length, and Sirius supposed the weight of it must have straightened it out and taken the frizz out of it.

Her figure had changed too, her waist coming in, accentuating her curves. She was slim with an hourglass figure, her breasts a nice size, not too big, but not too small either. The top she was wearing had shown off the fact that she was slim and toned. She looked hot.

And her smile! It lit up the room. She was stunning. That was heaven right there, in Hermione Granger's smile.

He paused in his musings and listened. Her breathing was deep and even. She was asleep. He rolled over, allowing his eyes to roam over her in the firelight. She looked so peaceful, like a beautiful angel.

How could Ron have beaten her? What had happened for him to resort to that? Didn't he realise what he had? That perfection was standing beside him?

But she was away from all of that now. She had done what she thought was right and pulled away.

He was so happy, yet so utterly miserable at the same time. She was so close he could reach out and touch her, but he didn't dare, because she was the best friend of his Godson. She would never return his feelings. Ever. With this in mind, he rolled over again, starring into the flames.

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There we go! The long awaited return of Sirius Black. And he is in the same room as Hermione! What will happen next you ask? You will have to wait and see!

I know lots of people are now not dead, but these are all of the people who if I owned Harry Potter would never have died! You will find out why I think this later!


	7. Chapter 7

Hello dears. Here again.

Here is chapter seven.

Boxers of Draco is still concussed, so again apologies for any errors.

There have been a few queries, and I hope to answer all questions.

No they don't have to back after Hallowe'en. The gap between life and death is weaker on this night and they can pass through with the aid of magic.

I know that in the books the impostor Moody said she'd make a good auror. We are never told what the first thing the real one ever says to her is, so I decided to make him say it too. I made that bit up. I am allowed to do that now and again!!!

I will explain why I brought certain people back, but not others later in the story. One of the characters does ask that very question!

Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter. Don't really want him, just Draco, Sirius and Remus but yeh… guess having the Weasley twins would be fun too. There is my list of wants. Can anyone provide?

Also want to apologise for the horrendously long time it has taken me to update. I have just returned to college, and I forgot to include time for story writing. It won't happen again I promise.

Read, review and enjoy!

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Chapter 7:

The next morning Hermione woke up to the sight of Sirius lying on his back, fast asleep, his left arm flung above his head, the right hanging off the side of the bed, the quilt was resting low on his hips. His shirt was untucked, showing a flat stomach, muscular and tanned.

She pulled her eyes away from this rather delightful sight, looking instead at his face. His hair was a real mess, a small amount of it flopping down over his face. And yet, he still managed to look gorgeous. She didn't know many men that could accomplish looking that good at this hour.

She reached out a hand, brushing the lock of hair away from his eyes, her hand lingering a little on his face. He shifted in his sleep, but didn't wake up. She smiled; he looked rather sweet first thing in the morning. /And rather sexy too. / She thought, scolding herself mentally for these thoughts as she stole another glance at his exposed mid-drift. She dragged her eyes away again, walking out of the living room and into the kitchen.

"Morning Kreacher."

"Morning miss. Is miss well rested?"

"Yes thank you Kreacher. You?"

"Yes miss. Is you wanting anything?"

"Yes please. Can I have a cup of coffee and some buttered toast?"

"Yes miss."

While the elf bustled around making her breakfast, Hermione sat down at the empty kitchen table, flicking through the morning paper. There was nothing amazingly interesting on the front page, just Rita Skeeter with her normal drivel, but nothing nasty, or vindictive, or that Hermione didn't think was true. She was very good at pulling things out of Rita's articles. It was a practiced art sometimes. Most of the time it was obvious, but there were other things that you could pick up that really were utter drivel hidden behind what would be a rather intelligent comment.

As she flicked through however, she came across an article that made her blood boil.

/ Weasley Marital Breakdown. Victor Krum Suspected Cause.

It can now be revealed, the Daily Prophet can reveal, that the Second War's Golden Trio is not the tight knit group it once was. As predicted by many, war heroes Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, now both 38, married a year after the War, and had two children, Rose, 12, and Hugo, 11.

It seemed like a match made in heaven, but recent events have shown that this match was not right for Mrs Weasley, who has returned to her maiden name Granger, who left the family home abruptly in mid-August, taking with her the two children, after a week long stay in St. Mungo's for undisclosed reasons.

September the first brought on a fistfight and heated argument between the Trio members when Mr Weasley came to see his children onto the Hogwarts Express. Mr Weasley lashed out at Mr Potter, the Trio's third member, when he refused to allow him to speak to his wife. The fight was followed by an argument between the now estranged Mr Weasley and Ms Granger, who chose this moment to announce her divorce.

The only other witness to the incident was a Mr Draco Malfoy, who went to school with and was nemesis of the famous three who refuses to comment on what was said, but simply stated "The Daily Prophet should butt out. This is none of your business and you idiots have no idea what you are talking about." He refused to give any comment or information on the seemingly reasonless end to the almost twenty year marriage.

Rumours suggest that Ms Granger is taking residence in Bulgaria with her once upon a time lover, Victor Krum, whom she met at the Tri-Wizard tournament in her fourth year.

"She's still coming to work, but she apparates, and she hasn't left a new home address with the Ministry, so she could be anywhere," said an unnamed Ministry insider. "She's a very quiet girl, works in the Research Department in the Auror Office, keeps herself to herself."

It can also be revealed that Mr Krum is taking time out of his busy Quidditch schedule "due to injury", but could he instead be spending a little quality time with the elusive Ms Granger? Could he be the reason behind the messy break-up? What this space. /

Hermione threw the paper across the room, fuming. /That evil cow! She's making me out to be some kind of adulterous whore! Again! That Wretch/

She stood up, storming from the room and running straight into Fred.

"Hey, slow down. What's up?" he said, catching her arms.

"That foul bitch at the Prophet is making stuff up about me again!" Hermione stormed.

"What's she said this time?"

"That I left Ron for Krum!"

"But… Who told her that? Was it Malfoy?"

"What? No. He told her to bugger off. He's grown up. He's not the petty little ferret he used to be. Helped me separate Ron and Harry when Ron attacked Harry at Kings Cross." She said, he mood still dark.

"Oh. Have you written to anyone yet?"

"About what?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Us being back?"

"Oh, no! Thanks for reminding me!" She turned around and went into the kitchen, summoning ink, a quill and parchment.

"What do I write?" she asked, suddenly stumped.

"Ask people to come over. I doubt they will believe a letter." Fred replied.

"Ok."

/Dear

Can you come over, straight away? I need to talk to you about something very important. Can't wait kind of important.

See you soon.

Hermione/

"How many times do we need it duplicating?" Fred asked.

"Er. Harry and Ginny, Molly and Arthur, Ted, George. Erm, Bill and Fleur, and Charlie. Six." She flicked her wand, duplicating the letter and writing the names of the people on them.

"What about Percy? I can understand Ron, but Perce?"

" Oh bugger, yes, Percy." She flicked her wand again. "Do you want me to get Ron over? I can." She asked.

"Not really. I want to see the others, but from what you have told me, Ron has been and is being a complete arse. I don't have time for arses." Fred replied.

"Ok. Kreacher, can you deliver these in exactly half an hour. I would rather you went a little late than a little early, because people need enough time to get ready. Ok?" she showed him the letters.

"Yes miss. Kreacher will do that miss." He said, taking the letters from her.

She turned back to Fred. "Wake up calls. You do the couples and I will get Mad-eye and Sirius."

"Good luck with that. Sirius is not a morning person, and Moody might just try and hex you out of habit!" Fred laughed as he left the kitchen.

"I'm an auror too!" she called after him, jogging up the stairs to wake Moody.

She knocked on Hugo's bedroom door. "Alastor? Are you up?"

"Yes. I'm just getting up," came the muffled reply.

Hermione turned and went back downstairs to the living room. "Sirius?" She walked over to the bed, sitting down beside him and gently shaking him. "Time to wake up." Her voice was soft as she stroked his hair, waking him gently.

"Just ten more minutes." He mumbled, nuzzling her hand like a little dog.

"No. You have to get up now." She said, her voice still gentle but firm.

He groaned, reaching out, pulling her down on to the bed and cuddling up to her. "You smell nice." He mumbled, using her chest as a pillow.

"Thank you." She said, blushing as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to his firm chest. His hold was strong, however asleep he might be.

"I thought the idea was to get Sirius out of bed." Said Fred from the door.

"He pulled me in." she replied, her face flushing more.

"Right. Shall I go tell the others what is going on?"

"Yes please."

Fred left the room and Hermione resumed her task of coaxing Sirius out of bed.

"Come on Sirius, Harry will be here soon and we wouldn't want you to still be in bed when he gets here would we?" she said, trying, and failing to pry his arms from her slim waist. He groaned, cracking open an eye and squinting at her at her through his eyelashes. His eyes grew wide as he realised who she was and he released her quickly, his face flushing a violent shade of magenta.

She laughed, getting up. "Come on you. Out of bed with you." She whipped off the quilt, vanishing it with her wand.

"But Hermione…" he pulled his best puppy dog pout, fine now that she was no longer in his bed.

"Up, or I'll vanish the bed and you can land on your arse." She said, a smile quirking at the corners of her mouth, showing her mischievous side. He sulkily rose and she flicked her wand again, making the bed and pillows vanish too. "Into the kitchen with you. The others will be here soon."

"You sound like Molly." He grumbled.

"She was my mother in law for nearly twenty years." She retorted, to which he shrugged. He shuffled off.

"You owe me a very big cookie for this."

"Is that all you want?" she laughed, following and overtaking him. "If I'd known you were that easy to placate." She walked into the kitchen. "All he wants is a cookie." She giggled to Fred.

"A cookie?" he said, confuse.

"It's how my mum used to get him out of bed when he lived with us," explained James. Everyone nodded in sudden understanding.

"Right," she started, "Just before the others arrive, I am going to stick you lot in the pantry. I will explain what happened and then you lot come in. Simple enough?" she said.

"Yes." Came the chorused reply.

"Ok. You have twenty-two minutes until Kreacher leaves with the letters. Eat, make any changes to clothing, hair, and the like." She smiled, sitting down and tucking into her own breakfast while the others did the same. In the haste to eat, the newspaper lay forgotten.

Twenty-fives minutes and fights over the showers later and the undead were in the pantry, ears pressed to the door. Hermione stood near the door, and there was a small crowd assembled in the kitchen.

"So… What's up?" Harry asked, breaking the nervous silence.

"You might want to sit down, all of you." She replied, suddenly unsure. What if they didn't believe her?

They all looked at her and each other, puzzled. They took seats at the table, and continued to watch her.

"Something happened last night. It's hard to explain. Things… aren't as they were." She paused, not sure how she should approach this. It had seemed an awful lot easier when it was suggested this morning. How did you break the news that seven dead people weren't dead anymore?

"What is it?" Ginny asked.

"It's about…. Fred. And Sirius." She took a deep breath and continued. "It also involves Remus and Tonks, Alastor and… Your parents Harry." She finished, her voice shaking a little.

"What about them?" he asked, her nervousness rubbing off on him.

"They aren't dead anymore. They came back last night." Several people stood up, and Hermione shrank back, reaching out for the doorknob behind her, flinging it open. The mentioned people came out, looking at their family members, who stared at them in shock.

Ginny made the first move, running over and hugging Fred, followed swiftly by the rest of the Weasley clan. Harry moved forward too, meeting his parents for the first time since Voldermort's attack when he was a baby.

Ted started, but paused, unsure as he looked on his own parents' faces, which he only remembered from photographs. Tonks moved toward him, and he dashed straight into her arms, all hesitation forgotten.

Fred was the first to speak. "I hope someone got the evil cow for me. I really wanted to strangle her, but I never got the chance."

"Mum got her. It was brilliant stuff. Bet Bellatrix regretted tampering with mum's temper." George replied, smiling broadly.

Hermione slipped out of the room, breathing a sigh of relief. For one terrifying moment she had thought that they weren't going to believe her. She looked in, almost laughing. It was so strange to see all of these old faces, their ages so very confused with those who had gotten here the long way round. It was most noticeable between Fred and George, who were supposed to be twins, yet one was twenty years older than the other.

She continued to muse on this as a demented sort of group hug formed in the middle of the kitchen. Even Kreacher had joined in, hugging Sirius round the knees. She smiled.

Sirius turned, as if looking for someone. He spotted her standing in the doorway and motioned for her to come over. She shook her head, smiling. He threw her a "don't make me come and get you" look. Her eyes twinkled, but she didn't move.

He drew his wand subtly. /Accio Hermione/ he thought.

She zoomed over, straight into his arms, up against his warm chest. He held her there, wrapping the arm that wasn't around Harry around her.

"Cheater!" she hissed.

"Nope. Just determined." He winked, flashing her his legendary smile, making her flush.

Why did he look so gorgeous? Was he doing it on purpose, or was this a natural charm that she had never noticed before? She suspected it was the latter. He just looked good. There was no real way to describe him. She allowed her mind to wander, thinking of things that no one would ever suspect her of thinking. She snapped out of it. Harry would never forgive her. Sirius was his Godfather. That would just be plain weird.

There was of course the fact that she had changed a lot since Sirius' forbidden crush on her. He was just being friendly now; there was no love in his warm embrace.

Or that's what she wanted to think. Little did she know that Sirius was in fact thinking of her constantly, and that his heart was pounding at the very idea of having her this close to him. She was there, cuddled up to him, but he couldn't have her. He couldn't love her, not in the way that he wanted to. He could only watch her from a distance.

He didn't see Remus watching how he held her, and the look on his face that gave him away so completely. He smiled. This was something he was going to have to watch.


	8. Chapter 8

Here you are my darlings.

Have been informed that Boxers of Draco is well again, and she can read my story for me and get rid of all the mistakes. Thank you and Woo for her.

Here is my update.

Read and review! Enjoy!

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Later that afternoon, after a lively lunch and much catching up, Hermione spotted the newspaper lying on the kitchen table. This reminded her of the trip they still had to make.

"Guys we need to go to the ministry." She said, "We need to go and tell them that you are back, and register Sirius and James as Animagi."

"Awwww! Why do I have to do that?" came the whine from Sirius.

"Because I want to expose Rita Skeeter as an unregistered Animagus, and it looks just a tad hypocritical if I hand her in and then allow you two to run free as you like. It doesn't hold too well in a court case." Hermione explained.

James nodded, and Sirius followed his example, albeit a little on the sulky side.

"But, doesn't that involve exposing me?" Sirius said suddenly, breaking out of his stupor momentarily. "I'm still a wanted man! I can't just waltz into the Ministry!" he said exasperatedly.

"You were cleared of all charges." Ginny soothed. "One of the Death Eaters confessed to it under Veritaserum after the last battle, that Pettigrew was working for Voldemort, and that he had sold him the Potters. He killed the muggles before disappearing."

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. "So is he still hiding?"

"No. He's dead. He died before the end of the War. Ages before." Harry said. "Strangled himself with that silver hand of his. He spared my life because he was in my debt, and Voldemort's creation killed him."

Sirius seemed to brighten at this. "Oh good. Saved me a job then."

Some of the others cracked a smile. They all knew how dearly Sirius had wanted to do the deed for which he was imprisoned. Hermione smiled as Molly swatted him on the arm, trying to hide a small smile as she did so.

The "returned" group all stood up and made their way to the fireplace. They flooed directly to the Registration offices. This was deemed a necessary measure, given the fact that they didn't want to attract the attention of the media by appearing in the Atrium.

Hermione walked up the head office, having led the small group. They had decided that she was the best person for the job, as she had been the first person to see them, and also because she was a figure of authority and the man at the head of Registration was terrified of her, after the tirade she had thrown at him when he had handed her a report which completely wasted her time not once, but on three separate occasions. He was therefore likely to do anything she asked him to do.

She knocked on the door; ignoring the protests of the feeble secretary the man had and walked right in. He looked at her, and then at the people behind her, a look of she horror on his pudgy face.

"What in the name of Merlin?" he spluttered.

"These wizards passed back through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries last night." Hermione stated in a very authoritive tone. One that Sirius couldn't help finding oddly sexy coming from her. He slapped himself mentally for this thought and tried to keep his face straight as the man behind the desk began to splutter even more.

"It's a gateway between life and death," he interjected, leaning causally against the doorframe, brushing a stray lock of hair from his piercing grey eyes, wishing that Hermione would look at him. He knew she never would, not like that, but he was allowed to dream.

She had glanced at him though, but had looked away quickly, for fear of losing all composure. He was truly gorgeous. She knew she shouldn't be thinking this way, but there was no denying that he was definitely way too good looking. It should be illegal to look that damn good.

"Normally," Sirius continued, "it's a one way gate, but on Hallowe'en the barrier is weakened, and animals can pass through."

"But none of you are animals." The man commented, forgetting his horror and replacing it with utter confusion.

Sirius and James looked at each other and sighed. Both changed fluidly into their Animagi forms.

The man gasped. "But neither of you are registered!"

"We noticed." Sirius replied, having changed back to his human form.

"That would be the other thing that we are here to do." James chipped in, "Register ourselves as Animagi."

"And how exactly am I meant to do that if you are meant to be dead?" the man asked.

"Re-open the files, like you did Pettigrew." Hermione answered.

"But how did the rest of them get back through, are they all Animagi?"

"No, but I fell bodily through the veil, so I still had my wand. I transfigured them." Sirius replied. "That's the other thing we need. Everyone's wands, bar my own obviously."

The man grumbled as he handed James and Sirius pieces of parchment and quills and wandered off, through the doorway to his left.

Sirius filled in his form quickly, pausing only when he came to the bit about markings. As far as he knew he didn't have any. "Hermione? Can you have a look at my Animagus form and see if you can find any markings?" Really, he just wanted her to look at him, to feel her eyes on him. Any excuse was good enough.

She nodded and he changed. She knelt down beside him, searching him thoroughly for any markings, even running her hands under his thick fur to find any possible scars, or hidden marks.

Sirius was in Heaven. She was running her fingers through his fur in a really thorough and pleasant way. He wagged his tail, arching his back into her fingers.

Remus watched the interchange, nudging Tonks and pointing it out to her. The look on her face said quite plainly, "Aw! Cute!" He ginned. Personally, he agreed. It was very sweet, almost sickeningly so, and yet each seemed to be oblivious to the others obvious affections. There was no way that she needed to keep running her fingers through his coat like that, but she was still doing it anyway, unable to take her chocolate brown eyes off the black dog before her. Sirius on the other hand was a very happy dog. He knew that Remus could have told him if he had markings, as could James. He just wanted to get Hermione to do exactly what she was doing now.

"Nope. I think that may be a negative. No markings on you Sirius." Hermione said, ruffling the fur between his ears and standing up. Unless you want to write 'Often mistaken for a Grim,' on your form."

Sirius decided this was indeed the only thing he could write. He did so, remembering all the times when Harry had done just that, mistaking him for a Grim, simply because every time he saw him he nearly died: being nearly run over by the Knight Bus after running away from home, falling from a broom from a great height, and finally, nearly getting murdered by the Whomping Willow.

Sirius signed and dated his form, placing it on the desk beside James, wishing he could feel Hermione's hands on him again.

The fat little man came back, looking annoyed by the fact that they were still there. "Your records have been updated. Thank you for your times ladies and gentlemen." He shook each of their hands in turn, hesitating only when he reached Hermione.

"No, thank you for yours. We appreciate this." She said, shaking his hand, grinning in a way that said that she was still going to string him up by his ankles if he wasted any more of her time at any point in the future and the group left the office.

"I need to make one more stop." Hermione said walking toward the lift. "Well. Two more really. They are on the same floor."

"And these are?" Remus asked, noting the way that Sirius was standing almost unnecessarily close to Hermione, and that she either hadn't noticed or didn't mind.

"Misuse of Magic Office and the Daily Prophet."

They stepped out of the elevator, and walked toward the Head of the Misuse of Magic Office. Hermione knocked on the door and stepped in.

"Hey Seamus!" she said brightly.

"Hermione! I just got a memo that you were in. Barney isn't writing garbage then, dead War Heroes really are turning up at you door. Weird."

"Indeed." She smiled.

"So what can I do for you?" Seamus asked.

"I want an arrest warrant for Rita Skeeter." Hermione said in a nonchalant manner.

"Would this have anything to do with the garbage in the Prophet this morning?"

"Yes and no." Hermione replied. "I want her on charges of being an unregistered Animagus, and also on the fact that she misuses her ability to get scoops for her foul stories."

"Oh. What is she?"

"A foul little water beetle." Hermione pulled out a photograph from one of her inside pockets. It showed a beetle in a jar, a close-up, of a very cross-looking little bug, which was buzzing, or would have been if the photograph could emit sound. She handed it to Seamus, who examined it.

"How do you know it's her?"

"Her markings are around her antennae. The same shape as her glasses." Hermione said, leaning over and pointing the markings out in the photograph.

"And the scoops? Hot did you find out about those?"

"You remember in the fourth year she was managing to get loads of random stuff about any one and everyone, even though she wasn't allowed inside the Hogwarts grounds?" Seamus nodded. "Well all of those occasions where a scoop appeared, this little bug happened to be there. I caught her at it and put her in a jar for safe keeping."

"And you didn't give her to the Ministry then because?" it wasn't a reprimand, more like sheer curiosity.

"We had a little deal. If she kept her quill to herself, then I would keep her secret. If she didn't, I would spill. End of."

"I see…" he simply looked amused.

"Obviously she has forgotten out little arrangement." Hermione's voice was passive as she leaned against Seamus' desk and examined the fingernails of her left hand. This was a very sexy look, and Sirius was almost drooling. How did she do that? How could she turn him into a pile of mush just by looking good? He tried to shake himself out of it, but it really wasn't working. He dropped his eyes, trying to think of something disturbing. Snape in his underwear! This seemed to work a treat and so long as he didn't look at her, he would be fine. He kept his eyes glued to the floor, and his mental image of Snape started tap dancing. This kept him amused and disturbed at the same time, thus removing the need to listen to beautiful sound of Hermione's voice.

"I see no reason why you can't have your requested warrant..." Seamus tone was amused, and also gave Sirius a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He looked up, the tap-dancing Snape vanishing as he saw the look that Seamus was giving Hermione. It was a flirtatious, predatory look, but only if you were looking for it. He would bet his life that Hermione hadn't spotted it. He fought back a growl. If he had been in his Animagus form, his hackles would have been raised. He settled for glowering unsubtly at Seamus instead while the latter was dictating the warrant to his quill, never taking his eyes off the witch in front of him.

He signed the warrant and handed it to her. "Have fun 'Mione. The old cow has had it coming to her for years." He smiled at her, and Sirius growled very quietly. From the way that Remus' head turned ever so slightly in his direction, he had the sneaking suspicion that he might have been heard.

Hermione took it and smiled, completely missing everything going on around her. Sirius glowering… Seamus flirting… Everything. It passed her by. She was hell bent on getting Rita back, and this was the only thing she was thinking about, the fact that she now had the permission to do it. She was almost skipping with a sinister glee.

"Thank you." She shook Seamus' hand and left the room to find a swarm of reporters outside, all of which were harassing Seamus' secretary. Hermione whistled loudly, and when this failed to grab the attention of anyone but Sirius, who's eyes were drawn directly to her mouth and his brain as to whether or not kissing her right now would be a good idea or not, she drew her wand and pointed it upwards. It let off a bang like a shotgun, making everyone jump.

She smiled at the reporters, keeping her wand out, but simply lowering it. "You can have three stories today." Every reporter was hanging off her every word, quills and parchment at the ready.

"The first is that as you can see, some of our War Heroes and Heroines have returned to us from Death. The second is that Miss Skeeter has once again been meddling in things that she doesn't understand the principals of, or understand the words 'none of her business', oh, and talking crap while she is at it. My marital breakdown was the result of a personal argument that wasn't ever going to be settled, thus ending the relationship. I haven't actually spoken to Victor Krum in years." She paused, emphasis on the last word, giving them all the chance to scribble down what she was saying.

"And the third story?" one of them asked eagerly.

She smiled; a smirk that any Malfoy would be proud of gracing her features. This made Sirius smile. She was being bad. There was a glint in her eye that said that she knew that there was no way that she should be enjoying an arrest so much.

"The third is the arrest of Rita Skeeter for her illegal activities as an unregistered Animagus and also for misusing her ability for purposes which are not appropriate." All heads turned to Rita as Hermione showed the warrant for the arrest. Rita had paled and frozen, but quickly regained her composure and tried to apparate. She was stopped however when she realised someone (namely Hermione) had placed an anti-apparition charm one her, in a pre-emptive move.

Rita tried a different tack, which was by no means any more effective. She transformed into her bug form, but Hermione just pounced on her with a jar. She levitated the Rita Beetle and slipped the lid underneath and screwed it on. She flicked her wand again and placed an unbreakable charm on the jar, so that Rita couldn't transform and escape that way.

"My easiest arrest to date! I didn't even have to look for her." She smiled at the little beetle, before holding the jar up and smiling for the photographers, who snapped her photo happily.

An hour and half later, once all the explaining to the press and processing of Rita Skeeter had been done, the group left the Ministry, to enjoy the rest of their Sunday.

Remus and Tonks hung to the back, wanting to watch Sirius. He was standing very close to Hermione, almost as if he didn't like the idea of anyone else being near her.

"Did you hear him in Seamus' office?" Remus asked her in a low voice.

"No. What did he say?"

"He didn't say anything. He growled at Seamus when he was flirting with Hermione."

"Really? I didn't hear him." Tonks looked confused.

"He wasn't loud. I only heard him because I'm a werewolf." Remus explained. "But he is definitely eyeing her. He really likes her."

"I don't think that she is complaining too much." Tonks said pointing to the pair as Sirius put his arm around Hermione's shoulder as they walked along the road to Grimmauld Place. Hermione had just made a small complaint about the cold, and Sirius had unzipped his jacket and wrapped the side of it around her shoulders, pulling her close to him.

Sirius smiled. This was one of his better ideas. She was cold; he was warm, so why not share as they walk down the road? She was cuddled into his side now, and he felt like he was in heaven. She was soft to the touch and there was no resistance to his hold. She had slipped her arms around his middle under his coat, hugging him back.

She leaned against his chest, wondering if this was one of those moments when she should be thinking about whether or not he was remembering his old crush on her. If she was truly honest with herself, she didn't think she would mind if he was. He was loving and kind, and had just unzipped his coat in the freezing cold, just so he could help her keep warm as they walked down the street to the house. It was kind of sweet. He was also hot, not that she was going to let her own brain admit to such a thing. She shook herself mentally. There was no way that he liked her now. He was just being kind.

Remus and Tonks at the back of the party didn't seem to think so, and both made it their mission to find out more about this potential relationship.

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Do not ask about the tap-dancing almost naked Snape. I have no idea. It was an amusing image, so in it went. You will find several of these rather odd little quirks throughout my stories. They are normally inspired by something. Today it was the "Potter Pals" video that is on the music for which my darling younger brother has been playing in my ear all afternoon. You can imagine how impressed I was with that. There is not a tap dancing Snape. There is however a naked Dumbledore. So yeh. Check it out. It's hilarious. DUMBLEDORE!!!!!!!!!!!!


	9. Chapter 9

Her you go hunnies!

Chapter nine as beta-ed by the lovely Boxers of Draco, to whom I am very grateful.

Read, review and enjoy!

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"So how come Dumbledore didn't come back with you?" Ginny asked when they were all sat in the kitchen again.

"He was an old man. His time was over. He didn't want to come back." Remus shrugged.

"What about Mad-Eye though?" Harry queried, gesturing to the old Auror.

"Alastor is just Alastor. He'll fight death 'til he drops, and then do it all over again if given half a chance. He was given a chance and he took it. He's not done living yet." Sirius replied, grinning.

The group decided that loitering around the house and catching up was a good plan. The returned people needed to be updated on the things that they had missed and they couldn't all go out somewhere until the press released the story that they were back, because there would probably be a massive panic. They sat around the kitchen tables, having their own little individual conversations.

Sirius sat with Harry and Ginny, who were both chattering away happily to Harry's parents about their three children. Sirius was only half listening. He was watching Hermione, so completely absorbed in taking in every minute detail about her that he didn't even notice when she stared straight back at him. James wafted a hand in front of his eyes, startling him out of his trance. He shook his head.

"What?"

"You were starring at Hermione." He told him.

"I was?" He feigned confusion. "Sorry 'Mione."

Remus watched this interchange, and was hardly surprised when Sirius began starring again, completely oblivious to everything else but the pretty brunette sitting opposite him. Tonks was talking to him about what colour she should make her hair today, and he had just agreed to lemon yellow with forest green polka dots. She looked at Remus who just shrugged and smiled. She looked back at Sirius, flicking him round the ear to get his attention.

"Sirius are you alright?" Ginny asked, also noticing the odd behaviour.

"Yes, sorry, I was thinking about something else." Sirius replied, snapping out of it again.

/Or someone else?/ Remus thought, smirking.

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Later that evening found Remus leaning against Sirius' doorframe, smirking. Sirius was pointedly ignoring him, until it became unnerving.

"What are you smirking at?"

"You," Remus replied, pushing off the door, " and your rather obvious crush on Ms Granger."

As predicted, Sirius flat out denied anything. "I do not have a crush on Hermione." He refused to meet Remus eyes, and looked instead at his shoes.

"Oh don't talk such rubbish. Tonks and me have been watching you all day. You can't keep your eyes, or your hands for that matter, off her." Remus looked smug as Sirius' cheeks tinged pink.

"I don't have a - " Sirius started.

"You do! The look on your face is the same one that I saw every day from the beginning of Hogwarts whenever James laid eyes on Lily. Remus cut him off, not believing that the Sirius' heart was actually in this denial.

"You're wrong." Sirius said, still avoiding his gaze.

Remus put on an annoying singsong voice. "Oh, no I'm not!"

Sirius ignored him, making Remus even more sure that he was right.

"There's no shame in it you know. She's very pretty." Remus stated, examining his fingernails.

Sirius snorted derisively and muttered something unintelligible.

"Sorry, didn't catch that." Remus said, not looking up from his nails.

"There was when she was fifteen." Sirius snapped. Remus raised his eyebrows. This was an interesting revelation. He grinned.

"And he admits to the crush."

"Yes, but I don't plan to do anything about it! I was old enough to be her father! What am I supposed to do? Waltz up to her and tell her I loved her then and love her now and ask her to go out with me? I don't think that plan is going to go down too well!" Sirius wafted his arms exasperatedly.

"Oh come on Sirius! What's stopping you? Really? You are single, she is single, you love her, and believe me when I say I know she loves you. What is there that stands in your way?" Remus stepped up to his friend, who was clearly trying to think of a plausible reason why a relationship with Hermione was a bad idea.

"She has two kids. What if they hate me?"

Remus turned around and started banging his head on the nearest wall. "Stupid-fucking-idiot!" he muttered.

A knock on the door made him pause. "Sirius? Is everything OK? I can hear thudding noises through my wall." It was Hermione. Remus strolled over and pulled the door open.

"Sorry Hermione. That was me. Sirius here is being more than annoyingly dense." He smiled.

Sirius groaned quietly, allowing his head to drop. He'd caught a glimpse of her under Remus' arm. She wasn't wearing much, and if he didn't look away he knew he would start starring at her. She was only wearing pyjama shorts and a tank top, and showing an awful lot of pale, toned flesh.

"Oh. Anything I can help with?"

"Yes." Remus said, while at the exact same moment Sirius' head shot up and he half yelled "No!" hurrying over to the door.

Hermione frowned, a tad worried by this.

"Honestly, we are fine. We don't need anything." He said quickly, yanking Remus away by the shirt collar.

Remus chocked slightly and Sirius took this opportunity to say good night to Hermione and shut the door. He rounded on Remus.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" he hissed.

"I think I should be the one asking you that question." Remus replied.

"And what it that supposed to mean?" Sirius snapped, folding his arms in an unimpressed fashion.

"That is supposed to mean that the girl of your dreams just walked in scantily clad and you didn't even stop to think about it before you said goodnight and shut the door!" Remus waved his arms about, trying to emphasize just how big a deal this was.

"But I - "

"I saw how you looked at her, even if she didn't. You my friend have got it bad." He paused to give Sirius time to digest this point. "Now. I am going to go to bed, and leave you to stew over this rather golden opportunity you just missed. Goodnight."

With that, Remus left the room and Sirius did just that. He stewed.

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Just a short one, but you have already had one this week so you can't really complain. I'm going to go curl up and sleep while you read. Remember to review people!


	10. Chapter 10

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that it has taken so long to update! I have had loads of work at college and yeah…. I shall compensate by typing up two chapters and giving them to you straight away!

Boxers of Draco was not online when I'd finished, so I have posted these unbeta-ed I apologise therefore for any mistakes.

Read review and Enjoy!

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Hermione went back into her own room, where Tonks was sitting on her bed; a none too impressed expression on her face.

"Why wont you just admit that you like him?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Because I don't like him and he certainly doesn't like me." Hermione replied, not meeting Tonks' intense stare.

"Bollucks to that!" came the reply, as predicted. "I have seen the way he looks at you and I have seen the way you look back. Both of you steal glances at the other when you think no one is watching and nether of you can keep your hands off each other. We saw you on the way back from the Ministry. What's more I told him I was going to make my hair lemon yellow, and he agreed to it. Me? Lemon yellow? I don't think so. He was way too busy staring at you. I'm not the only one who has noticed. Remus has noticed too, possibly Lily and James as well." Tonks added triumphantly, daring Hermione to keep denying it.

"But - " Hermione stammered, a little unsure of what she was supposed to say in objection.

"He's good looking yes?" Tonks cut her off.

"Yes." Hermione nodded hesitantly.

"You are single?" Another nod.

"He is single?"

"As far as I know."

"Anyone else you are interested in?" Hermione shook her head.

"He has a great personality?" She nodded.

"Sexy, charming, almost annoyingly adorable, kind, loving, fun, interesting, a perfect gentleman who would spoil you rotten."

"Yes… he is all of those things." Hermione had a thoughtful look on her face. Tonks grinned. She was getting through.

"He's great with kids." She stated. Hermione nodded.

"Ok. Last question. Do you feel safe with him? Or, should I say, did you before he died? Because he hasn't changed. If you felt safe then, you should feel safe now."

Hermione thought about this carefully. That had been a long time ago, when she felt safe with Ron too. But Tonks was right, Sirius hadn't changed. Ron had. And Hermione had felt safe allowing him to share a room with him last night. And there was something warm and comforting in the way he had held her that morning when he was asleep and had pulled her into bed with him, and when he had wrapped the side of his over large coat around her.

She smiled softly. "Yes I feel safe with him." She whispered.

"Do you like him?" Tonks slipped in a sneaky question while Hermione's mind was elsewhere. In her dreamlike state the other woman nodded, making Tonk's grin widen considerably.

"Then I see no reason that you should not give him a chance. Yes you've been hurt, but Sirius is a different sort of guy. Trust him, and give him a chance."

Hermione nodded. "I'll think about it. I'm not promising anything, so don't you dare say a word to him, but I'll think about it." Hermione pointed her finger at Tonks, who smiled, and nodded.

"I won't tell him, I promise."

A knock on the door sounded, and Remus opened it. "Hey, Tonks I'm off to bed now."

"I'll be there in a minute." She replied. Remus winked and closed the door.

Tonks stood up. "You both deserve somebody and while I know if I asked him, he'd deny absolutely everything, but he likes you. A lot." With that, the other witch left the room, leaving Hermione to stew, much like Sirius was doing, just the other side of the wall.

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Tonks walked to her room to find Remus sitting on the bed waiting for her.

"What did he say?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

"He admits liking her, but is very reluctant to do anything about it." Remus replied.

"Likewise with her. But I'd give it till Christmas. She was seriously considering it." Tonks replied.

"They had to be the most stubborn people I ever met didn't they." Remus muttered, getting ready for bed.

"Awfully sweet couple though," Tonks replied.

"Hmm."

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Three weeks later found Sirius trudging down the stairs for breakfast. He was grumpy, having barely slept since his and Remus' little chat. Hermione had been on his mind constantly. Living with her certainly hadn't helped. Remus had said that she liked him, but she had yet to show anything of the nature to him. Nothing to show that the beautiful Ms. Granger returned his feelings.

He watched her through his hair so as not to attract her attention. She was sat to his left so he peered in that direction, trying to read her closed expression. This proved difficult because she turned away from him in order to talk to Tonks who had just asked her something that he couldn't hear. Her hair had fallen over her face, meaning that he couldn't see her. Lily and Tonks were talking to her in whispered tones, and Ginny joined the conversation after a few minutes, looking delighted at something that Lily had just divulged. Some secret piece of information that the rest of the kitchen was not privy to.

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"Come on Hermione. It's been three weeks and all everyone has been able to see is your blatant attraction to Sirius and his for you. Go and talk to him." Tonks said her voice low.

"James has noticed, so you have to admit it." Lily said. "And he's not the brightest spark when it comes to crush spotting so yeh."

Hermione flushed as Sirius entered the room and turned away from him so he wouldn't see the colour her face had turned.

"If nothing else confirms attraction, that does." Tonks said, pointing at Hermione's reddened face.

"What proves what?" Ginny had come over and was listening intently.

"Hermione fancies a certain Mr. Black." Lily said, smiling.

"Yes! Harry owes me ten galleons!" Ginny looked very please with herself.

"Hang on a minute. You guys have been betting on this?" Hermione looked horrified at the very idea.

"Harry can see that Sirius likes you, but was "almost positive" that you didn't return the feelings. I bet him ten galleons you did." Ginny explained.

"Sirius does not like me," Hermione said flatly.

Lily, Tonks and Ginny looked at each other and then her in disbelief. "Have you missed the last three weeks?" Tonks asked. "He spends every waking moment staring at you. He brings you coffee in the library; he gets up especially in the morning so he can see you before you go to work. Come off it!"

"Me, him and James went to Diagon Alley last week and we saw Ron." Lily said. A month ago, Hermione's head would have shot up at this, but now, her eyes remained glued to the coffee in her mug.

"And?" she asked tonelessly.

"And it was all James and I could do to stop him ripping him limb from limb." Lily said softly. "He knows you have moved on, but he couldn't get past what Ron had done to you. He couldn't believe it. He furious that he had the nerve to hurt you, to throw away someone so special."

Hermione dropped her head. Sirius ad been trying to defend her, she looked up at the clock. "I have to go." She muttered. She got up and left, not seeing the look of worry and longing on Sirius' face.

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Ok there you go. Will post it immediately. Sorry again for the long time it took!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 for you dears. Thank you for your patience. Once again it is hasn't been beta-ed for speed. Sorry for any mistakes!

Read review and enjoy.

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"Rose!" Hermione waved to her daughter, who spun around on hearing her name and ran over to her mother smiling.

"Where are the others?" Hermione asked, hugging Rose.

"Lily is just trying to persuade her silly cat to go back in the basket and the boys were in a different compartment.

As if on cue the other four children arrived. "Where's dad?" James asked.

"He is sorting out some stuff back at the house, so I said I'd pick you all up." Hermione replied.

"Ok." James replied.

Hermione flicked her wand, smiling brightly, loading the trunks onto a trolley, two owls and a pair of cats balanced on the top.

She led the group out of the station, pushing the trolley through the barrier. They chattered about things that had happened over the term, and Hugo and Lily gave a vicious account of Filch, who was still caretaker, though he had aged considerably, and was more cantankerous than ever before.

"Hermione!" A voice sounded behind them, and Hermione turned to see Draco running over.

"Can I talk to you a second?" he said, panting.

Hermione stepped away from the children and stood a little way off, facing them so that she could see what they were doing over Draco's shoulder.

"There's been Death Eater movement. Mother got an owl the other day, asking where her loyalties lie. Not that specifically, but you know what I mean. She went to a meeting. Amazing actress that woman. There are things flying about, lots of them involving you. There appears to be new people, people that weren't there last time. At least three she said, but given the hidden nature by which Death Eaters go about their business she had no idea who they were. She didn't recognise the voices. She suspects they may have been magically glamoured." Draco hissed, keeping his voice low. He flicked his eyes around nervously. "She told me to tell you to be careful, and don't go anywhere alone, always have someone else with you to watch your back. She knows you are an auror, but even they work in pairs." He said everything incredibly fast, knowing that she would retain the information. "And you better stop coming for tea. I think the house is being watched."

Hermione nodded, "Tell your mother that I am grateful to her and that the Order will keep their eyes open. If she needs help, the Order can give it too her."

"I thought the Order disbanded." Draco said, confused.

"It did, but the old crowds can be called up again. The Order of the Phoenix has its name for a reason. It rises whenever called." Hermione smiled.

He grinned. "I'll see you around then."

"Indeed. Let me know if you hear anything. Be careful about how you write things though." She touched his arm lightly. "Thank you"

With that the two separated, he to pick up his son, and she to the small herd of children that she was going to have to magically expand her car in order to fit them, their luggage and their pets into.

"What did he want?" Rose asked.

"Never you mind." Hermione replied, pushing the trolley. "He just wanted to talk to me. There isn't anything wrong with that is there?" She gave he daughter a look, and Rose shook her head. Hermione smiled, pushing the trolley round the corner into the car park. She stopped, the smile leaving her face as she put out an arm to stop the children.

There was a sight none of them relished. Leaning against Hermione's car with his head down was Ron.

"Wait here," she said softly, walking over toward Ron, slipping her wand into her sleeve as she did so. She held her head high as she strode towards him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, coming to a halt beside the car.

"Am I not allowed to see my kids during the holidays?" There was venom in his voice, despite the fact that she had spoken civilly and that her question was not unreasonable. "They are still my kids aren't they? Or have you found some way of changing who their father is too?"

/Oh. So you want a fight then so you?/ Hermione was in no mood to mess with Ron on this matter. "I don't need to do that Ron, you did it yourself. They don't see you as their father anymore. If you want to try, by all means, go ahead and try. I'm not stopping you." She gestured to the small group of children stood at the other end of the car park. Ron looked at them, choosing to ignore the suspicion and distrust on each of the five faces of his children and Godchildren.

"I want to see them," he insisted. He turned away from her and walked towards the children, unaware of the fact that she was following him a few steps behind.

They were stood in a tight nit huddle. Rose had a defiant stance, he head held up, her expression cold. Hugo was trying to imitate her, but he was never as brave as his sister, and his fear still showed through. He had not forgotten the sight of his mother when Harry and Ted brought her through the fire.

The three Potter children stood around them, James standing slightly in front of them all, as the eldest, his face showing that he didn't want Ron too close.

"Hey." He said, pretending not to see.

"We don't want you here." Rose spoke low and quite, but unmistakably clearly.

Ron looked taken aback. "Rose, it's me, it's your dad." He crouched down in front of her, looking up into her young face.

"Yeh. The same Dad who beat up my mum. The same Dad that spread crap about her in the papers to cover up what he did. The same Dad who I am ashamed to share a name with. The same Dad that I no longer call my father." Rose replied sharply, her anger showing through. "Stay away from me!" She yelled, shoving him away, overbalancing him. He fell back as she stood over him. "Stay away from Hugo! Stay away from my family!"

She stepped over him, stalking away toward the car, not even sparing him a glance. The other children followed her, not looking at him. With the exception of James. Rose and Hugo were like another brother and sister to him, and no one upset his family. He was well known for hexing the Slytherins that hurt anyone he cared about, especially his siblings and cousins.

"I don't know what you were expecting. They havn't forgotten and they will never forgive you, and neither will I." He stood over Ron as he spoke, before spiting at his feet in contempt and walking away, grabbing the trolley as he did so, and taking the key that Hermione passed him.

Ron just sat there, shocked. He looked up at Hermione. "There's going to be an Order meeting soon. There's been some activity. I'll send you an owl when it's called." She said, before she too left him.

He stood and watched as they left him, packing up the car and driving away, to God knows where. He still didn't know where she lived. But he needed to find out, as fast as possible.

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I am Soooooooo sorry! I did it again. I didn't do it on purpose. It's been a tough few weeks at college and I had loads of work to do. Still do as a matter of fact. I will update as often as I can, but it will be unbeta-ed till Boxers of Draco gets back from Nepal where she is currently holidaying. Sorry for taking so long!

Love to all!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 for you!

I am sorry it has taken so long for me to post this. I have been struggling along with college work and it sort of takes over life as a whole. Kinda unfortunate really. Still struggling with it all, so this is going to be very short, because I need to get on with the two major projects that I have to have completely finished within the next three weeks.

Read review and enjoy

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Sirius jumped as the front door to the house opened with a loud bang. He looked out of the living room door to see a young girl with flaming red hair storming up the stairs. He assumed this must be Rose, he had heard about her temper. She was upset, and it was evident when the rest of the kids came in that something had happened while they were either on the train, or on the way home. A bedroom door slammed, and Sirius was once again thankful that Kreacher had gotten his mother's portrait off the wall. She would have had a fit.

The rest trooped up the stairs after depositing trunks in a pile near the door. They were silent, and he only heard one door close. They had opted to all stay in one place, and avoid the storming Rose.

Hermione came in through the front door, a pained and weary look on her face. She closed the front door and took off her coat, hanging it up on the hat stand by the door. She walked past the living room door and into the Kitchen, and Sirius heard the characteristic sounds of Hermione clattering around the room in an effort to put her negative energy to good use.

Sirius got up from his seat by the fire and followed her into the Kitchen. In the time that he had been living with Hermione at Grimmauld Place, he had worked out that this was never a healthy option as she would end up dropping a large quantity of something and that would make her even more angry than she was to begin with.

A large crash made him wince as the inevitable happened. She cursed loudly and Sirius opened the door to see her repairing half a cupboard's worth of plates. She was fuming. Sirius walked over to her, catching her wand hand and removing the potentially lethal piece of wood from it. She turned her gaze on him, a rage showing that she was clearly unimpressed that someone had stopped her. It softed however, the moment she realised who it was that had done so. The tense shoulders relaxed and she allowed Sirius to pull her up from the floor.

"What happened?" he asked gently, guiding her to sit down at the kitchen table. He waved his wand vagly over his shoulder and mended the plates, sending them back into the cupboard with a second vague wave. His focus remained on Hermione, who lloked like she was on the brink of tears. He knelt down in front of her, so he was looking up at her, meaning she couldn't avoid him by looking down.

"Ron happened."

That said it all. Ron had turned up again. "What has he done this time?"

"He was waiting at the car when we came out of the station. He said he wanted to see the kids. He wouldn't listen when I told him that they didn't want to see him, he just ploughed on. He wouldn't leave them be. Rose screamed at him, James said something and spat at his feet. He didn't seem to get it at all." Tears were beginning to slip down her face, the events of the day taking their toll. "and now Rose is in a foul mood which will take days to lift, all of the others are miserable. This isn't how them coming home is supposed to be. They are supposed to some home happy and ecited, not down hearted and depressed because some stupid bastard cant get it into his thick skull that he isn't wanted here anymore."

Sirius stood, lifting her chin. He wiped away her tears with the pad of his thumb. "Ron is an arse. Don't concern yourself with him. He isn't a threat to you. Not anymore." He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "Don't let him get to you. The kids will be fine, just give them a little time to come round. If all else fails I'll go for the cute dog that sits there with is head in your lap wagging his tail and starring at you till you cant help but smile. It's a fail safe. Works every time." He said. He felt her laugh a little and smiled.

They stayed that way for quite some time in companiable silence, Sirius still holding Hermione. Her head reasted on his chest and she could hear his heart beating. It was soothing and she soon felt much calmer. With a clearer head she tried to remember what the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something meant.

"Oh!" she said suddenly, remembering. "We have to call the Order back up." She pulled away from Sirius, as if she were going to go and begin sorting it out, but Sirius stopped her.

"What? Why?"

"Narcissa sent a message through Draco. She's being called to meetings and the old Death Eaters who were never caught are on the move. There are some new people too, but she's not sure as yet who they are." Hermione explained quickly.

She made to try and move again, but Sirius still refused to let her go. "Let Remus handle it. He knows who all the old crowd are."

"Remus doesn't know."

Sirius drew his wand and flicked it. His patronus flashed out of the room, and he smiled. "He does now."

Hermione quirked an eyebrow. What was he trying to do here?

"You need to calm down a bit. The world doesn't end just cause you aren't running around like a headless chicken organising everything." He said softly, hugging her again.

Hermione settled against his chest again. She wasn't complaining that one of the most sought after bachelors in wizarding history was hugging her; on the contrary, it was a very pleasant experience. He'd been doing it more often lately, hugging her, flirting with her, innuendoes flying around left write and centre. He twisted things she said, or things said in relation to her. She knew he liked her, the others had convinced her of that much, but he had only recently been blatantly showing his affection, as though testing her, to see if she had any interest in him. She had flirted back, and taken a lot more time over her appearance than she would have done previously. She had been tempted to let slip something she had found in his diary on more than one occasion, but she didn't want to upset him, so she kept it quiet.

"Mum?" a small voice came from the doorway and the two turned, Sirius releasing Hermione at the sound. Rose stood there, looking sad and still a little angry. She had been crying, and now she wanted someone to tell her it was all going to be ok.

Hermione walked over and wrapped her own arms around her daughter, letting the girl cling on. "You feeling a bit better now?" she asked. Rose nodded, but she still looked thoroughly miserable. Hermione led her over to the chair that until a few minutes before, she had been occupying. Sirius stepped back a little, giving Hermione a brief smile before slipping from the room.

He didn't go far, just outside the door, before transforming. He heard Hermione ask Rose if she wanted one of Molly's homemade chocolate muffins, and Rose agreeing. He padded into the room, brushing past Hermione as he did so. He went straight to Rose and sat in front of her. She ignored him at first, but he persisted. He laid his ears flat against his head and threw a puppy eyed look at her. She continued to ignore him. He rested his head on her knees and gave a soft whine. She looked at him and he wagged his tail, letting it thump the floor. She looked away again, but he kept it up, giving another little whine. She smiled, still trying to ignore him. He wasn't having that. He jumped up, licking the side of her face, his tail still wagging. His ears perked up and he titled his head to the side, giving him the air of a large playful puppy. She squealed, unable to ignore him and laughing outright. He backed happily and Hermione turned, laughing as he tried to get Rose again. The young girl was trying to fend him off.

"Sirius, get down. Bad boy!" Hermione called across the kitchen. He barked again. "Down!" she said again, and this time he listened. He jumped down and ran over to Hermione, jumping her instead. She moved out of the way. "Sirius stop it." She said smiling. He whined, throwing her the puppy eyes.

"Nice try Sirius, but you throw that look so much I'm practically immune to it." She said, stepping round him to give Rose her muffin. Sirius transformed again, standing up.

He placed his hands over his heart in mock drama. "You wound me Hermione you really do. Is that all the thanks I receive for my services? For taking care of you and your daughter in your time of need?"

The other two laughed. "Aw. I'm sorry Sirius." Hermione replied. He smiled. It was one of his winning smiles that made most women fall it his feet. Hermione could safely place herself in that category. Not that she was going to tell him that.

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There we go my lovelies. Longer than I thought it was going to be. Its not beta-ed cause I thought I'd kept you waiting long enough.

Feedback is love!


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